XCOM: Remnant Unknown
by DrAmishMD
Summary: The sequel to XCOM: RWBY Within. Teams RWBY and JNPR return to Remnant in time for the Vytal Festival. They're relieved to finally have their lives get back to normal after nine months on war-torn Earth, but is the life of a huntsman ever truly normal?
1. Have A Nice Trip

A/N: Alright, let's get this thing started, shall we? To everyone who's coming into this after reading RWBY Within, welcome back! To everyone who's stumbling upon this for the first time, hello! If you have the time and/or inclination, I recommend reading XCOM: RWBY Within before this one, as you'll be missing a good deal of context without it. If you want the cliff notes version, here it is: RWBY (and later JNPR) spent the better part of a year on Earth helping XCOM fight off the alien invasion from Enemy Unknown. Now that the war's over and the technology is available to send the two teams back home... well... it's time for them to go back home. That's about it, really.

* * *

Act One

Players and Pieces

Bradford watched the mayhem unfold before him as people moved left and right throughout the Hyperwave Facility. In the midst of it all, like the eye of a storm, stood Team RWBY. While scientists and engineers moved about the periphery on Vahlen's orders, technicians and prep teams worked to suit up the four huntresses as they readied themselves for XCOM's first live jump through the Hyperwave Relay.

As much as he didn't want to insult them, Bradford's conscience demanded that he ask, "Are you sure you want to go in first?"

"Yes!"

"We have operatives ready and willing to make the jump before you just in case the relay opens up somewhere…" Vahlen coughed, "Undesirable."

"Really, doctor? Do you _really_ think so little of us that we're willing to let someone else die in our place over this?"

"Hey, you can't blame Vahlen or the operatives for offering. After all these months of helping us and surviving to get back home, it'd be pretty awful if something stupid happened… like the relay teleports you into a rock or something."

"Meh. We've been in worse situations."

"While it's true that ending up inside a solid object is a… dangerous possibility, I'm pretty sure these pressurized flight suits Vahlen, Shen, and Ruby designed account for every other possibility. Not to mention the fact that Annette has taken us up a mile or two above sea level. The preliminary tests conducted by Vahlen and Shen seem to indicate that the relay's physical input location on Earth is directly linked to its output location on Remnant. If that's the case…"

"Then you should be in for a nice little skydive, correct Blake. But it's also a possibility that the coordinates are not a one-to-one match between Earth and Remnant. What if increasing the Temple Ship's altitude actually causes the portal's z-coordinate to _drop_ on the other side? Or what if the coordinate systems on each side of the relay aren't even aligned at all?"

"I trust our Chief Scientist and Engineer. We're not sending an operative to die on Remnant, Bradford. Final decision."

The Central Officer sighed. He was certain that would be their answer. Even so, Earth owed a great deal to RWBY and JNPR for their critical contributions to the alien war, and Bradford didn't want something as stupid as a scientific miscalculation to lead to a tragic ending to XCOM's relationship with the men and women of Strike Eight. When Ozpin confirmed that he was unable to locate the portal during Shen and Vahlen's preliminary activations, the question of _where_ the portal was actually appearing came up for the first time. If he was in their place, however, Bradford knew his answer wouldn't be any different.

The main power facility onboard the Temple Ship swarmed with activity. Two weeks had passed since Dr. Shen's engineering crews successfully transplanted the Hyperwave Relay from XCOM's old base onto the alien mothership. With the ship's capability to output obscene levels of power compared to anything on Earth, the two doctors agreed that it was likely the only piece of hardware capable of supporting a reverse trip through the relay. So now, two weeks later, Team RWBY was preparing for their maiden voyage back to Remnant.

As Blake had noted, Vahlen and Shen ran a large gamut of probing tests to determine the nature of the 'other side' when they realized that the portal appeared to be mobile. For obvious reasons, Annette couldn't 'park' the Temple Ship inside the old Anthill to test whether the Hyperwave Relay's physical location had an affect on the portal's position. Instead, the scientists build and deployed sensor equipment that would feed information back to the ship after they appeared on Remnant. The rapid acceleration values from these sensors indicated a freefall scenario when the Temple Ship was at high altitudes, but that didn't do much to ease Bradford's conscience.

Vahlen watched attentively as the technicians strapped Team RWBY into their environmental suits, and it reminded Bradford of a mother hen keeping a close eye on her little chickens, "I trust the Kingfisher Suits are comfortable? It's difficult to avoid chafing while maintaining both an airtight seal and a flexible degree of motion, but-"

"They're fine, doctor." Weiss said, cutting off the Chief Scientist as the technician continued to tighten straps and fasten rigging to her slender frame, "I'd rather feel slightly uncomfortable than unprotected."

Vahlen nodded as she watched the technicians step back from the huntresses, "And the wing functions? Let's make sure those are operational before we send you through, especially since we're expecting a high-altitude drop."

The huntresses waited for the technicians to step back before they each tapped a contact point on the left flank of their suits, and a pair of mechanical wings deployed with a quiet _click_. Vahlen wrote down a few notes on her datapad before stepping forward to perform one final examination on the wings. While Bradford still held some personal reservations and concern for the first 'jump,' he couldn't help but be amused at Vahlen's obvious distress as the fated hour continued to draw closer. She never wore the signs of concern when she sent XCOM operatives out to field test her designs for gene mods, power armor, or plasma weaponry during the war, but now… now she seemed downright terrified at the prospect of something going wrong and the thought that she could have done something different to prevent it.

"I would have liked some more time to fine-tune the webbing," She muttered, "My team still hasn't perfected the process of adapting the alien materials into a high-strength fabric, and the aerodynamics of the mesh-"

" _Doctor_." Weiss said, a tinge of annoyance coloring her voice now, "We'll be _fine_. If the wings don't work as intended, we still have the backup chutes for a safe landing."

Vahlen let out a deep sigh, "You're right, as always. I just… I want to make sure you have every tool possible at your disposal for this. There are still a lot of subsystems I want to integrate into the design, to be honest."

"And there will be time for that in the future." Blake commented while she tapped her side once more to retract the suit's wings, "But for now, this should be more than sufficient."

A gentle hand came to rest on Vahlen's shoulder, and she turned to see Dr. Shen smiling at her, "You and I have spent a week with the brightest researchers and engineers to adapt our Archangel technology into these flight suits. All the simulations and preliminary tests fall well within our target parameters, and while we haven't reintegrated the propulsion systems yet, I have full confidence in the success of the suit's first transdimensional test. It's time to let our friends return home."

"And hey, it's not like we're leaving forever." Yang assured the doctor, "At the very least, we need to come back to get Jaune and his merry band and bring them home, right?" She let out a low whistle as she admired how the suit formed around her figure, "Damn, I look good in this…"

"We'll be monitoring your progress with Bradford in Mission Control." Pyrrha said, standing with Jaune and the rest of her team while they watched the activity going on in the center of the room. She giggled when Blake gave Yang a light smack upside the head.

"I know that it would've taken another couple of days for R&D to make four more suits, but I wish we all could've gone together." Ruby said, looking at the smiling faces of her friends from JNPR, "I feel bad that you guys don't get to come on the first jump."

Jaune shook his head, "This is the best option, Ruby. I want to reestablish contact with Remnant as soon as possible, even if that means my team has to wait our turn to use the Hyperwave Relay. Besides, now we can get Vahlen and Shen a lot of important data a week earlier that they can use to improve the suits _and_ the operation of the relay."

Bradford nodded in agreement with Jaune's assessment. While Ruby meant well, Shen and Vahlen had a tremendous amount of tests they wanted to run and data they needed to collect, with top priority devoted to determining the spatial orientation and positioning of the portal. Having the Hyperwave Relay on a mobile ship offered an incredible advantage to XCOM in terms of troop deployment, but only if Vahlen and Annette actually knew how to use it.

"I know, I know." Ruby whined, "Doesn't make me any happier about it."

"We'll do a group jump later, Ruby. I'm confident that Nora will make sure that it happens." Ren said.

"You're goddamn right I will." Nora grinned, "Nothing is gonna get between me and a hot drop with lil' Rubles. Nothing!"

Weiss rolled her eyes, "Let's just move along for now, shall we? I think we're all set for final prep."

"We will if you'll just hold still for one goddamn minute." MacAuley grumbled as he continued to assemble and double-check his work on Weiss's suit.

Junior technicians retrieved the face masks for the Kingfishers and the service teams set to work installing the internal oxygen supply systems and providing a complete environmental seal for the huntresses. After the final clip slotted into place and the engineers powered up the regulator systems, Ruby took a few deep breaths to test the air flow.

"Seems like it's working fine to me." She commented, her voice slightly distorted by the oxygen gear.

"I feel like some sort of badass villain with this face mask getup." Yang mused while she tested out her own oxygen assembly.

Beagle snorted, "Duh, and his name is Bane."

"Who?"

"... I have brought shame upon my family for never introducing you guys to Batman."

"Oh, you think the Hyperwave Relay is your ally?" Jaune asked, looking pointedly at Beagle with his hands over his mouth, "You merely adopted the warp. I was born in it, molded by it. I didn't see the Earth until I was already a man!"

"Jaune… I fuckin' love you, man."

MacAuley cleared his throat to get the attention of the room before announcing, "Jump prep is finished. All technicians are reporting green across the board." He gave Ruby a grin and a thumbs up, "Your team is good to go, Captain."

The sense of excitement and anticipation in the room intensified after MacAuley made his announcement. With RWBY all suited up and ready to go, the only thing left was for Vahlen to push the proverbial (and literal) button. The Chief Scientist had already retreated to a console next to the relay, her eyes scanning the readouts as her fingers flew across the keyboard.

"Power grid is stable… Relay's fluctuations are nominal…" She keyed the ship's intercom and hailed its pilot, "Major Durand, we are all set down here for the jump."

" _As are we up here, Doctor._ " Annette replied cheerfully, " _I'm in the network, and ready to protect the ship's functions from any power surges caused by the relay's draw. You're good to go._ "

Vahlen nodded (mostly for her own benefit, given that Annette couldn't see the motion), and entered a few more keystrokes before looking up at Bradford, "This is it."

The Central Officer gave her an encouraging smile, "This is it."

With a deep breath to steady her nerves, Dr. Vahlen made one final tap on the console to start the activation process. Seconds later, the 7-foot ring hummed to life and began to emanate a faint purple glow. Strands of energy appeared to flow inward from the ring towards the center, as if pulled by some invisible gravity well. For a minute, the room became perfectly silent as all the occupants stared in awe at the strange portal. Vahlen continued to monitor her console for errant readings while Bradford found himself holding his breath. Annette's voice came through the ship's comms, breaking the relay's spell over its observers.

" _We felt the psionic flux from the relay up here, Central, but all systems remain stable. I can't see where the connection will drop the jumpers, but I can confirm that the portal is at least safe on our end._ "

"Understood, Major." Bradford confirmed. He looked at Ruby and her team. His conscience tempted him to once again remind them that they don't have to do this, but he knew that trying to repeat his offer would only be an insult at this point, "Good luck, Eights. We'll see you on the other side."

"Please don't forget to activate your gyros the moment you find yourself on Remnant." Vahlen reminded the team, "It's vital that Dr. Shen and I start understanding the spatial relation between Earth and Remnant as soon as possible."

Ruby saluted the Chief Scientist, "Understood, Doctor." She picked up the little gadget hanging off of the belt of her flight suit just to make sure she remembered how to turn it on, then she faced her team.

"You guys ready?"

The Kingfisher's rebreather concealed her sister's grin, "I was born ready."

"It might be best if you do it with a running start." Vahlen advised, "Just… make sure you're braced for whatever you find on the other side."

With her team at her side, Crescent Rose on her back, and Aureate Mercy on her hip, Ruby gave one final look at everyone in the room.

"Thank you." She whispered, "For everything."

Before her sentimentality could delay things further, Ruby took off towards the portal at a run. She heard the rest of her team fall in behind her as she watched the active gateway get closer and closer. Once Ruby was only a few feet away, she planted her foot down and used the momentum from her sprint to vault into purple maw of the Hyperwave Relay.

The first time she traveled from Remnant to Earth not only happened nine months ago, but took her completely by surprise. So even though Ruby didn't know what to expect from the experience, it still came as a slight shock when the trip through transdimensional space seemed to be over as soon as it had begun. Less than a second after Ruby made herself airborne on the Temple Ship, she found herself continuing to fall as wind whipped past her flight suit. Some corner of Ruby's mind remembered to activate the gyroscope Vahlen had given her team even as she felt herself succumb to the incredible sensation of freefalling miles and miles above the Earth.

No. Remnant. Ruby looked down and, though it was the middle of the night, she saw the bright lights and familiar sprawl of her Kingdom. Sure, the view looked slightly different on account of ships never flying this high, but even if Vale itself didn't have any landmarks that stuck out, the shape of the city lights as they pressed up against Vale's coastline left no doubt in Ruby's mind.

Her helmet's comm crackled, and she heard Weiss's awestruck voice, " _Amazing…_ "

" _I'll say,_ " Yang answered. Even Yang lost her usual cocky attitude in the face of such an impressive sight. " _I've never seen anything like it._ "

Ruby couldn't help it, she let out a small giggle. After all this time, fighting through the blood, plasma, and death on Earth, her team finally made it back to Remnant. A second later, Blake giggled as well. That was all it took for the floodgates to finally break and for all four huntresses to succumb to peals of laughter. Plummeting through the air at who-knew-how-many miles per hour, Team RWBY let the relief of finally being home wash over them. No more aliens, no more psionics, no more end-of-the-world wars. It was back to being huntresses and keeping their friends, family, and neighbors safe from the Grimm.

Once she recovered, Ruby took in a deep breath and keyed her mic, "Central? This is Captain Rose, do you copy?"

The rest of her team didn't have to wait very long for a reply. As Bradford's voice came through the comms, they all could hear the cacophony of cheers and applause in the background, " _We copy, Ruby. Thank God, you're okay._ "

"Tell Vahlen that her prediction was right: the portal opened up high in the sky, and we're presently free falling towards the surface of Remnant. Gyros are powered, and we're feeling fantastic."

" _That's great news, Captain. Keep us in the loop on any interesting developments._ "

"Understood. Rose out."

As Ruby and her team continued their freefall, Blake spoke up, " _There, by the cliffs. I'm pretty sure that's Beacon._ "

"So it is…" Ruby said as she too spotted the familiar glow of the tower that stood watch over her school, "Ozpin should be waiting for us by the landing pads. There won't be anyone around at this time of night, so I don't think we'll need to worry about being spotted."

" _Time to try out Vahlen's wings, then?_ " Weiss asked.

"Indeed." Ruby answered before keying her comm once more, "Central, we're deploying the wing system now. We'll keep you appraised of its performance."

" _Have fun._ "

Ruby pivoted her body into a gliding position, then tapped her hip and felt the mechanical wings spring into their open state. She immediately felt the wings fill like a pair of sails as they caught the rushing wind and shifted Ruby into a more horizontal trajectory. Yang's giddy laughter over the comms told Ruby that she wasn't the only one enjoying her newfound ability to fly.

" _Let's not get too crazy with stunts, Yang._ " Blake warned, " _If something breaks, the darkness won't make it easy for us to help you recover in time._ "

" _But that's what_ you're _here for._ " Yang whined, " _You've got those special eyes that will let you come to my rescue!_ "

" _Blake's right,_ " Weiss added, " _We'll have plenty of time to push these wings to their limits. Let's just worry about meeting with the headmaster for now._ "

" _Ugghh, you guys are no fun. No fun at all, I tell you._ " Despite her complaints, Yang fell back in with her three teammates and the huntresses continued their descent towards the school. Even though they agreed not to get carried away with their newfound ability to fly, Ruby was still plenty impressed with how well the wings worked. Perhaps someone with a more critical eye for aerodynamics would have noticed some deficiencies with Vahlen's technology, but Ruby found herself with no complaints as she watched the docks draw closer and closer.

"Central, we're nearing the rendezvous point. Please convey my congratulations to Vahlen and Shen. The Kingfisher suits performed admirably."

" _Will do, Captain. Say hi to Ozpin for me._ "

The team finished its descent onto the landing pads, flaring their wings upward at the last second to kill their momentum and land neatly on the platform without the messy use of the emergency parachutes. The four huntresses helped each other disconnect their environmental masks so they could pull off the protective headgear and breath the fresh air of Remnant for the first time in months. Just as they spent a moment laughing in the air over Remnant, the girls stopped for the opportunity to savor the idea of not only having their feet back on solid ground, in the familiar territory of Beacon academy.

"Ozpin's waiting for us up ahead." Blake commented, "With Glynda and someone else I don't recognize."

Ruby couldn't make out the welcoming committee just yet, but she trusted Blake's eyes, "Best not to keep them waiting, then."

With their flight suits on and their rebreather masks tucked under one arm, Team RWBY walked off the landing pad and towards the waiting adults. Ruby felt like she was in a scene taken straight from that Top Gun movie that she and her friends watched with Major Vance early in their stay with XCOM. The brave fighters, returning home to a hero's welcome.

As they got closer, Ruby saw the figures Blake reported. Ozpin in the middle, smiling lightly as an even-faced Glynda stood on his right. And to the left was…

"Uncle Qrow?"

"Hey, kiddo." The caped hunter answered, cracking his usual smile, "Welcome home."

* * *

A/N: And so it begins. Welcome to the beginning of the sequel to XCOM: RWBY Within, complete with another one of my "10 minutes in MS Paint" cover images. Are you guys ready? 'Cause I'm ready. Let's do this.

As a side note, there's one thing I wanted to mention in my last A/N for RWBY Within, but totally forgot until I noticed a couple of Guest reviews for the chapter. So... Guest reviews. I allow them to be posted because I want anyone and everyone say what they want about my chapters, whether they have an account or not. However, it always pains me to see Guest reviewers include questions in their posts, because there is no way for me to answer them. As a lot of you already know, I'm a fan of answer questions via PM, but that's impossible if you don't sign in to leave the review. I know some writers use post-chapter Authors Notes to address reviews, but I would much prefer to keep that to PMs, especially because it opens up the possibility for a back-and-forth dialogue between us. So if it's at all possible, please please _please_ sign in before reviewing if you have a question that you'd like me to answer. Trust me, I would love to answer them.

Until next time!


	2. Heroes of the Resistance

A/N: Had a few people ask me about the frequency of updates after I didn't post this chapter on Friday. I mentioned in my last A/N on RWBY Within that I'm currently going with a week-and-a-half posting cadence for this story, because the weekly pace I maintained for RWBY Within was a bit too stressful for me. After my first trial with this new pacing, I have to say that I _really_ enjoy having an extra 3-4 days between updates. Feels like I have so much more time to look at my chapters, edit them, and get a better feel for the story's progression. So I'm planning on sticking with it, at least for the time being.

* * *

The moment that Ruby's confusion wore off, a goofy smile splashed across her face as she dropped her helmet and charged at her favorite (and only) uncle.

"UNCLE QROW!"

The hunter in question grinned as he watched his niece hurtle towards him at breakneck speed. Ruby launched herself into Qrow's open arms and giggled as he pulled her off the ground and into a hug. For a few happy seconds, all off the stress and worries in Ruby's world melted away as she let herself be a little kid again. With Qrow here, what could possibly go wrong?

"How've you been, kiddo?"

"Been better." Ruby admitted, "But I'm feeling _pretty great_ right about now. Check out the wings on this thing! I just flew down from an altitude of…" she checked Vahlen's gyro, only to realize that it didn't have a numerical display for her to read, "… well, from really high up! Bet you're jealous, huh?"

Qrow chuckled and put down his niece before gesturing to the other three huntresses walking up behind Ruby, "Your team, I assume? The one on the right looks like she's a bit of a hot head."

"Nice to see you too, old man." Yang smirked.

Qrow looked over at Ozpin, "I think she was talking to you, because there's no way I could be considered an 'old man' in any sense of the word."

"Well, you certainly don't act like one." Ozpin quipped before nodding at the team of huntresses before him, "It's nice to see you all again. I trust that JNPR is safe as well?"

Ruby nodded, "Yep! It would've taken another couple of days -well, hours from your perspective- to make more of these suits, and Jaune didn't want to wait that long to see if the Hype…r… Waaaaave…" She trailed off and looked over at her uncle. As much as she loved Qrow, Ruby wasn't sure how he would take the news that his niece had dragged her team across dimensions and into a bloody war on another planet.

Qrow raised an eyebrow, "You gonna finish that thought, kid? Or do you seriously think that Oz hasn't told me about your misadventures on Earth?"

"Oh… well, that makes sense, I guess. Why else would you be here if you didn't know, right? Yeah…" A thought popped into Ruby's mind, and her eyes grew wide, "Wait, does… does dad…?"

"Nah. Ozpin didn't want to worry Tai about it." Qrow answered, shaking his head, "Knowing him, he wouldn't rest until Oz let him make the jump and join you guys on Earth. It was bad enough that those other friends of yours were already hellbent on coming to your aid, you know?"

"Would've been nice to have some extra support, though." Weiss grumbled.

"Too risky." Blake answered, "Especially since we didn't know if a return trip was possible. Speaking of which, our first jump was to test both these wing suits _and_ the relay, and where we would appear after traveling through it. Since you said the portal stopped appearing in its usual spot after the relay was transferred to the Temple Ship…"

"… The new exit point had the potential to be dangerous." Ozpin finished, nodding, "Your doctors Vahlen and Shen have kept me appraised of the situation. Even though we were unable to confirm the airdrop theory one-hundred percent, I felt comfortable enough with their data to go ahead with the run. I believe Bradford informed you of this, yes?"

"He… uh… didn't." Blake said with a small measure of surprise, "He's just been saying that it's still dangerous, and that we don't know for sure where it'll spit us out."

Ozpin brought a hand up to his chin, "Interesting. Your Central Officer doesn't seem like the kind of man who would lie to your face, especially about something so dangerous, just to stop you from going through with the jump."

"Brad's been busy with the fallout of the war, so he might've forgot." Yang pointed out, "The damn council is giving him a hard time about the ship, making all sorts of demands for rules and sanctions and whatnot. Almost like they forgot that XCOM saved the Earth from total annihilation." She finished with an eye roll.

Ozpin sighed, "Well, I'll acknowledge that everything turned out alright in the end, despite the fact that you four weren't completely in the loop on the plan. Given that I myself am somewhat familiar with the _joys_ of bureaucracy, I think I can understand and forgive Bradford's misstep. Especially if this council is as difficult as you say."

Ruby nodded, "It doesn't help that they remain anonymous. I think they feel like they can get away with being bossy and demanding since we don't know who they are, just what they represent."

"The intranet, while truly a testament to human ingenuity, is also somewhat of a cesspool for the exact reason you've mentioned, miss Rose." Ozpin said, taking a sip from his mug.

For the first time in the entire exchange, Glynda spoke, "Perhaps it would be better if we moved this conversation to somewhere more secure? While I'm sure the concept of cyber-bullying isn't a matter of national security, some of the other subjects of Team RWBY's debriefing surely have a more sensitive nature."

"Correct as always, Glynda. Come, we'll continue in my office." The headmaster swirled his mug and glanced at its contents, "It appears I need a refill, anyway."

* * *

"Central Officer, time and again you fail to give us the… answers we are looking for. Not only are you not forthcoming with the research developed by your scientists, but your unwillingness to allow a party of delegates onboard the Temple Ship is… disturbing. While XCOM still remains a vital ally in combating the new… supernatural threat you call the Grimm, this Council of Nations is disappointed with your actions, Bradford. We hope you will see the error in your choices before we are forced to resort to more… direct methods in these negotiations."

While he maintained his confident posture, Bradford groaned inwardly, "Is that all, councilor?"

"For now. Remember: we… will be watching."

The screen turned black, and Central Officer Bradford slumped into his chair. Despite what the counselor had said, their thinly-veiled threats seemed pretty damn direct from Bradford's perspective. What was the next step? Branding XCOM as international terrorists? Sending in an air force to bring down the ship?

"This is why I have trust issues." He complained to nobody in particular.

"Sounds like your meeting didn't go so well."

Bradford looked up to see Dr. Shen standing at the door to the Situation Room, "May I come in?"

"You're a sight for sore eyes, Ray. What can I do for you?"

"Just thought I'd lend some moral support." Shen glanced at the blank video screen, "Figured you could use it."

"Well, I suppose you could- hey there, Lily."

A young woman, head poking around the door frame, stepped out into full view and gave a slight bow, "Hello, Central Officer Bradford… sir."

For the briefest of moments, Bradford felt like he was meeting Ruby Rose for the first time all over again, "Just Bradford is fine." He smiled before turning to Dr. Shen, "Showing your little rugrat around the ship?"

"I believe I cleared it with you a week ago." Shen answered, eyebrow raised.

Bradford let out a small 'huh' while he tried to wrack his brain for the memory of the supposed conversation, "… You're probably right, doctor. Besides, I wouldn't have any problem with Lily coming onboard under your supervision anyway."

"Still… it's slightly concerning that you forgot." The elderly engineer pressed, "Seems like dealing with the council is taking a heavier toll on you than you expected."

Bradford nodded, "I'll have a talk with Vahlen when she has some free time. But for now, I think it might be nice if I joined the two of you on your tour of the ship." He glanced at Lily, who occupied herself with staring at all the technology around the room, "Provided you're okay with having more than one old geezer showing you around."

The younger Shen (was she in her teens now? Bradford made a note to ask Ray about it later) shrugged, "It's fine. Dad talks about you all the time and all the amazing things you accomplished, so it's nice to finally meet the infamous Bradford."

"Infamous?" Bradford asked, eyebrow cocked, "Yeah, well… he talks about you all the time, too. Why do you think I knew your face?"

"That's… uh... a good point, now that you mention it." Lily turned to her father a pointed look, "You only tell him the good things about me, right?"

Dr. Shen returned his daughter's look with a mischievous smile, "More or less. Now come on, let's take you over to the engineering labs."

"I dunno," Lily teased, "I've got a pretty cool machine shop at school. Are you sure your spaceship can beat it?"

Her father rolled his eyes, the smile never leaving his face, "That's a high bar you've set, my dear. I suppose you'll just have to decide for yourself whether a manufacturing floor staffed by twenty of the world's top engineers and two fully-functional AI's is better than your high school machine shop. Go on ahead, Lily. I need to talk to the Central Officer in private for a few minutes. We'll catch up at the elevator, alright?"

Lily nodded and ran off down the hallway, stopping every few feet to look at some fascinating piece of hardware or another. Bradford and Shen ambled slowly behind her in silence for a few moments.

"Y'know…" Bradford started, breaking the silence between them as he continued to watch the younger Shen, "For a kid that age, she's surprisingly well behaved."

"I like to think my wife had a hand in Lily's behavior before she passed." the Chief Engineer mused, "But I'm also thinking that, in this particular case, I've made the importance of XCOM _quite_ clear to Lily. She is well aware of the fact that this organization and its staff deserves her utmost respect."

By this point, the two of them lost sight of Lily as they continued to amble along. Silence fell between them once more until Shen commented, "You don't look so good, my friend."

Bradford sighed, "You'd think life would be easier when I didn't have the fate of the world weighing down on my shoulders, but all of this politicking with red tape and subtle threats is just making me feel… really shitty."

"That's… slightly uncharacteristic of you." Shen admitted, "Even during our most dire hours during the war, I've never seen you this distracted."

"I guess I couldn't afford to be distracted. Maybe because this shit is so inconsequential in the grand scheme of things that my mind is allowing itself to crack under the pressure."

Shen nodded, "I suppose that makes sense. At least there's always Remnant when you need some time to yourself." A thought occurred to Shen, and he gave Bradford a hard look, "You _have_ visited Remnant, right?"

Silence.

"You haven't." Shen sighed.

"You have to remember that two hours on Remnant means a whole day blows by here." Bradford said, trying to defend himself, "There's just too much to do, Ray. Too much bullshit to deal with."

The Chief Engineer shook his head, "That's what the chain of command is for. I know for a fact that Van Doorn would gladly take on some of the responsibilities that you seem determined to shoulder entirely by yourself. Annette, Beagle, Patterson, Zanakos… Being the 'Central' Officer implies that you have an entire staff of ranking operatives who are more than capable of fulfilling duties while you take some much-needed time off."

"I know, I know." Bradford said, "The only reason Ruby hasn't badgered me about this yet is because she's still too caught up with finally being on Remnant again. I received a message from Pyrrha, however, noting that it's been well over twelve hours and asking why I haven't come to visit. I gave her some excuse about how Vahlen is still calibrating the relay for regular use, but I'm pretty sure she saw right through it."

"It is frustrating that visits have to be short." Shen admitted, "The four hours I spent in Vale with Ruby flew by so quickly, they seemed like four minutes. But you owe it to yourself to spend some time over there. And if you need to find a reason to justify it to yourself, say that it's to meet with Ozpin. Let Van Doorn deal with the council for a day or two. He's recognized as an international hero, so I don't see him having any trouble without your assistance. And if an emergency arises? We can always send you a message and ask you to return immediately."

Bradford sighed. He knew that his friend was right. All of the million little reasons not to go, while they seemed significant as a group, fell apart as soon as he assessed each one individually. For whatever reason, he was dragging his heels about visiting Remnant, and Bradford realized that the only thing really stopping him from going was himself.

"I'll make time for it soon." He promised Shen, "But for now, I believe we have a visitor waiting for a tour of the ship's engineering facilities."

* * *

"Alright Annette, if you're to become a huntress worthy of any sort of respect, then you need to determine your weapon of choice."

Annette cast a confused look at Weiss as the two of them walked down the streets of Vale, "I already have a shotgun."

" _Besides_ the shotgun." Weiss clarified with a slightly indignant huff, "Given that the Grimm seem to be more susceptible to melee weaponry than firearms, all huntresses and huntsmen are capable of fighting Grimm in close quarters combat. Ruby carries a scythe, I carry a rapier, etcetera. If you want to be taken seriously at all in this business, you _need_ a melee weapon. Which is why we're going to the finest blacksmith in the city."

"Makes sense, I guess. What kind of weapon is easy to combine with a shotgun?" Annette asked.

Weiss shook her head, "That's not the question you need to be asking yourself. Formshifting is a skill that's been honed by Remnant's craftsmen for generations. Decide what kind of weapon speaks to you, and leave it to the professionals to develop a design that works. Here we are."

Weiss and Annette stepped into a small, unassuming building that Annette hadn't even noticed until Weiss drew her attention to the doorway.

"Before coming to Beacon, you would never catch me in an establishment as… quaint as this." Weiss explained, as if she felt the need to defend herself, "But ever since Ruby took me here once during our first semester, I've come to realize that there's sometimes more to a store than its exterior. Hello Gus."

A man popped up from under the counter in the back and waved cheerfully at the pair, "Hello miss Schnee! Haven't seen you around in a while. Was starting to get worried that something had happened to you."

"Yeah, well, eight mo-" A slight kick from Annette reminded Weiss that eight months hadn't actually passed from the shop owner's perspective. Weiss cleared her throat, "Never mind. My friend here is looking for a weapon."

Gus raised an eyebrow, both at Weiss's misstep and the fact that the woman standing next to her was a lot older than the average client looking for a first weapon. After a moment, he shrugged and cracked a toothy grin, "Well! better late than never, I always say. Do you have any ideas where you'd like to start?"

Annette cast a glance at Weiss, "I take it that people my age tend not to buy weapons?"

"Like most other skills, Hunters learn their craft at an early age," Weiss explained, "It's not unheard of to start late, but it's not common, either."

That made sense. Annette hummed pensively as she looked around the shop. The weapons on display ran the full gamut from simple to exotic, and they all looked like fantastic choices.

"I think I'd like something that's relatively simple." She decided, "I'd rather not spend a lot of time trying to learn the intricacies of something fancy like Crescent Rose or Gambol Shroud."

"Ah, I see you're familiar with the rest of miss Schnee's gang." Gus noted, "Yes, Weiss's friends do indeed have some… interesting tastes in weaponry. But I can proudly say that it's nothing I can't handle! More to the point, though, we have a nice selection of simpler armaments. Swords, axes, maces, staves… name any martial weapon you'd like, and we either have it available, or I can custom build one for you."

The XCOM Captain cast another glance at the racks of weapons spread out around the room before she came to a tentative decision, "I think a sword would be good. Like a… a short sword? Nothing too heavy."

"The heavier it is, the bigger the punch it can pack." Gus commented, "However, lighter weapons give you the advantage of better agility, so it's really just a matter of preference. Would you simply like a sword, or are you looking to integrate some ranged options into your weapon?"

"How hard would it be to integrate a shotgun into a short sword?" Annette asked.

"Not hard at all! Though perhaps something a bit larger would fit your needs better, like a bastard sword?"

Annette nodded, "A bastard sword, then. How expensive would that be?"

"Not a concern." Weiss cut in.

Annette sighed, "Weiss…"

"Nope! This is a very significant milestone for you, and I'm not going to let something as base as money affect your decision."

"Spoken like a true Schnee." Gus chuckled, "Still, I will do my best to keep the cost reasonable."

"Thank you, Gus. How long do you think it will take to have the weapon finished?"

"The Vytal festival is actually making me a busy man, believe it or not." The weaponsmith said with a chuckle, "But for you, my friend? I will make this a priority. I'll do my best to have it finished in a couple of days."

Annette flashed a warm smile, "I can see why Weiss speaks so highly of you. Thank you for your efforts."

"Of course! Farewell, and enjoy the festival!"

With that done, the duo stepped out of the shop and back onto the street. The entire exchange caused Annette to notice something interesting about her friend. While Weiss's behavior here would have easily fit with the Weiss that first fell through the Hyperwave Relay eight or nine months ago, it certainly didn't match the personality that Weiss had grown into over the course of the war. All this nonsense about money being no object? Letting the weapon 'speak' to you? Not getting caught in such a rundown building? Sounded like a slightly stuck-up heiress to Annette. She wondered if, now that Weiss found herself back in Remnant, the young huntress was trying to return to the way things used to be back before the war.

And while Annette couldn't blame Weiss for trying, she knew that something like that would be impossible. No matter how hard Weiss tried to act like a princess (or Ice Queen, as the case may be) again, Sergeant Schnee would always be lurking just beneath the surface.

* * *

"Ozpin, I still don't understand why you feel this is a good idea."

Beacon's headmaster closed his eyes and sighed as Ironwood continued, "You wish to induct a strange man, one that I've never heard of, into our circle and share with him Remnant's darkest secrets. You have given me no cause to trust you on this decision, yet you ask me to do so anyway."

"I dunno, Jimmy, but I'm a big fan of anyone that can simultaneously keep my nieces safe for three weeks while fighting for his squad's life in the middle of a goddamn war zone."

"Qrow…"

"A war?" Ironwood asked, surprise in his voice, "What war? I am the general of the _largest military on Remnant_ , why was I not made aware of this sooner?"

"Maybe you should ask your precious Stealth Division why they didn't catch wind of it. Sounds like a pretty big oversight on their part." Qrow taunted.

"ENOUGH, Qrow." Ozpin said, planting his hands on his desk and standing up to glare at his subordinate. While he knew that Qrow held no love for Ironwood or Atlas, this sort of taunting was going to cause serious problems if something slipped about XCOM. The last thing Ozpin needed was to have Qrow needlessly tempt fate. He returned his attention to Ironwood, "Whether you know him or not is besides the point, James. I know enough about Bradford, as well as his credentials, to trust both his judgment and competency."

"But why haven't I heard of him?" Ironwood pressed, "We're talking about world-shattering secrets here, Ozpin. Revealing this information to a nobody simply because you say it's alright doesn't sit well with me."

Ozpin raised an eyebrow, "Are you trying to tell me that there aren't any Atlesian secrets that you hold close to your chest? That you've informed me of every division -research, combat, and stealth- currently employed by your government, and the successes they've enjoyed?"

Atlas's headmaster-general opened his mouth to speak, then closed it as the words became caught in his throat. Ozpin nodded, "Nor would I expect you to. It's simply a matter of politics and strategy: while it's important to keep your friends close, it is equally wise to have a contingency plan." The aging headmaster sat down once more and took a sip from his mug, "Bradford's division is one of Vale's contingency plans."

Ozpin watched as his colleague tried to come up with a counterargument, but failed to find one that was satisfactory. Eventually, Ironwood settled with, "So why does Vale get to be the only kingdom with a 'contingency plan' that is in the loop? With your talk of guarded safety, it seems like this move puts you at a large advantage over your peers."

"There's a lot at stake with the Vytal Festival, James." Ozpin began, choosing his words carefully, "The White Fang has become more bold in the last year, and I can't think of a more public stage than this festival for them to send a global message. I understand your concerns, but Bradford possesses a unique set of skills that could prove invaluable to the safety of the people during this international event."

"With respect, Ozpin… the council put _me_ in charge of security for the festival after the Breach debacle which, I remind you, happened under your watch." Ironwood countered.

"And I am certain you are doing everything in your power to ensure the Atlesian security is top-notch." Ozpin answered before Qrow could come up with a snarky jab, "I am not trying to question your leadership here. I am, however, looking at what lays ahead after the festival. To that end, I believe it is important that we start revealing some of the world's greatest problems to a select few who are capable of making a difference."

"You speak as if there aren't already any well-known individuals with an established list of accomplishments." Ironwood said, "Specialist Schnee could easily-"

"Ah yes, _Specialist Schnee_." Qrow cut in with an eye roll, "Your favorite lap dog, that one."

A sharp look from Ozpin cut the grizzled hunter's tirade short. Beacon's headmaster took another sip from his mug before answering, "I am well aware of the wide range of talents your specialists possess, James. Perhaps you would like to bring miss Schnee to the table?"

"If you're dead-set on informing this Bradford of our purpose as well as our… situation, then I think it's only fair that I have the opportunity to do the same."

Qrow sighed, "Wonderful…"

* * *

Ruby and Yang glanced at each other as they approached the front door to a small, unassuming cottage.

"You sure you wanna do this?" Ruby asked, "You know he's gonna freak out no matter how you frame it."

Yang sighed, "It's better than putting it off and having him find out some other way that doesn't involve me telling him directly."

The two huntresses took a deep breath, followed by Yang tapping her metallic knuckles on the front door.

"Dad? It's me, Yang. Ruby and I stopped by to say hello."

"Don't forget about the cover that we agreed on with Ozpin." Ruby reminded her.

"Yeah, yeah, I know." Yang answered, rolling her eyes, "We got sent on a mission that went south. We were stuck with a spec ops team for three weeks while we waited for extraction."

Ruby wanted to quiz her sister on a few more points, but their father opened the door and cut the conversation short by reaching down and pulling his two daughters into a sweeping bear hug.

"My girls!" Taiyang said, voice somewhat muffled as he buried his face in their hair. He held his children for a few seconds before releasing his vice grip and standing back to get a better look them, "You look so different since I last saw you! Then again, Beacon is the best there is, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised that you've matured so quickly. Come in!"

He ushered Ruby and Yang into the house while he continued to bombard them with questions about school, training, and life in general.

Yang glanced around the room, "Is Zwei around? I thought he'd be here."

Her father raised an eyebrow, "I sent him to stay with you at Beacon, remember?"

"O-oh… yeah, you did." Yang answered, exchanging a glance with Ruby. When they didn't see Zwei in their room after they got back to beacon, RWBY figured that Zwei found a way back home to Patch. Since it seems he hadn't, Ruby and Yang realized they had to find the whereabouts of their dog before Taiyang found out they lost him.

For now, though, their father seemed oblivious to the problem, "How are you doing with your partner, Ruby? I know your first couple of letters described her as… difficult to get along with."

' _It's been months since I've had a fight with Weiss._ ' Was what Ruby wanted to say. Instead, she answered, "Oh, you know… Weiss comes from a pretty different background, but I think we're getting better at meeting halfway on things."

Taiyang nodded, "That's good to hear. I've met the Schnees before on official business for Vale. If Weiss is anything like her father, I'm impressed that you've managed to become friends so quickly."

"What about you, dad?" Yang asked, shifting the focus of the conversation, "Been up to anything exciting lately?"

"Eh, just teaching at Signal." He answered, scratching the back of his head while his face changed into an expression of mild discomfort, "Guess I'm kinda boring, aren't I?"

Ruby shook her head, "I wouldn't say that, dad. Passing on knowledge from one generation to the next is super-important, right?"

"Exactly!" Yang added, "I mean, hey: you taught me how to fight. And not to brag, but I'm _kind've_ a badass now."

Taiyang smiled, "Sometimes I wonder if I'm taking care of you two, or if you're the ones taking care of me. So what brings you back home? Just a quick visit with your old man before you get ready for the Vytal Festival? I hear your team is competing in the tournament."

Ruby and Yang exchanged glances. It was now or never.

"Yeah, we are." Yang answered. It was her turn to look uncomfortable, "Listen, dad, there's something I need to tell you. Show you, actually."

The smile on Taiyang's face dropped instantly, "What's the matter? Are you okay?"

His eldest daughter chose her words carefully, "I'm… fine. Really. But, it's just that… well… I guess it'll be easier to just show you."

Yang rolled up the sleeve on her usual blouse and began to unravel the decorative scarves she had wrapped around her right arm. She watched with apprehension as her father's eyes widened at the sight of gleaming metal as the wrapping fell away. While Vahlen's upgrades to the MEC arms vastly improved their durability, she never had the chance to make any cosmetic improvements to the technology. Yang's shoulder joint made a few clicks as she fiddled with it before dislocating with a quiet hiss. As his elder daughter detached her right arm from her torso, Taiyang's jaw dropped. Yang gently placed her arm on the coffee table between them as stunned silence filled the room for a brief moment.

"Soooooooo yeah." Yang said, unsure of how to proceed, "That's kinda the main reason why I wanted to see you, dad. Thought you deserved to find out in person."

Taiyang blinked several times, his eyes glued to the prosthetic, "Wh-what… what happened?" He looked up at Yang, a mixture of terror, horror, and fury in his eyes, "How did you lose your arm? _Who did this to you?_ "

"It's… not just my arm." Yang explained, the discomfort growing in her voice, "It's all four of my limbs, actually."

" _What?_ " Her father stood up. His balance unsteady and his knuckles clenched white in rage, Ruby could almost feel the heat of her father's anger radiating from his soul. Here stood a man, abandoned by his first wife and a widower to his second, and the only remaining joy in his life came from his two daughters. The look on his face when he realized how close he had come to losing one if them without even knowing it… it crushed Ruby's heart to see him like this. The directionless rage mixed with anguish on his face, and Ruby didn't know what would happen if Yang hadn't spoken up first.

"And it was my fault, actually." Yang finished, her voice barely above a whisper.

"Show me." Taiyang hissed, still determined to find a victim upon which he could unleash his wrath, "Show me who did this, and I will erase him from existence."

Ruby chimed in so that Yang didn't have to keep talking, "He's already dead, dad. We went on a mission a few weeks ago with another team, JNPR. We…" Ruby paused for a moment, then corrected herself, "I… made a mistake." She took a deep breath. The fact that there was some truth in her words made it easier to lie to her father, "A mistake that not only did Yang and her partner pay for, but one that essentially trapped us in the region for two and a half weeks. I'm… sorry."

In an instant, the anger fell away from Taiyang's face. Numb shock quickly replaced rage, and Ruby watched her father teeter in silence for a moment before dropping back into his chair. The three of them sat in silence for a long time while Ruby and Yang waited for their dad to grapple with the situation. The emotions Ruby psionically sensed from her father had no rhyme or reason, each bubbling up and giving way to the next as Taiyang's mental faculties short-circuited. Finally, the dust in his mind seemed to settle, and a single emotion rose above the rest.

Despair.

He looked up at his daughters with tears rolling down his face before finally holding his arms out to them. Immediately, Ruby and Yang crossed the gap and buried themselves in his chest as he enveloped the two loves of his life in a crushing embrace.

"I'm sorry." Ruby repeated into Taiyang's jacket, "I never meant for this to happen."

Eventually, Taiyang found his voice, "I'm… I'm just glad you're both safe, that you made it back. Really, I am." They held each other for what seemed like an eternity before he spoke again, "I'm sorry I wasn't there for you."

Ruby stepped back and wiped her face, "It's not your fault. You didn't know, and…" She took a deep breath, preparing for the lie she was least comfortable with, "… and there was no way for us to tell you."

Taiyang watched his elder daughter step away from the hug and pick up the metal arm to reattach to the rest of her body, "It'll take some… getting used to." He said, eyes transfixed as Yang snapped the arm back in place, "How did you not panic in the moment? I mean, you're two of the strongest women I know, but how did you pull yourself together after something so catastrophic?"

"It wasn't easy, for sure." Yang admitted, waving the arm in front of her face, "Still isn't. But, I guess I couldn't afford to lose it while we were in danger, you know? We still had to survive and come home before I had the luxury of worrying about my, um… injuries."

The conversation slowly grew warmer from there, as Taiyang tried his best to simultaneous comfort his daughters and come to terms with Yang's new condition. Even though their reunion came with horrible news, it still felt nice to be a family and talk. Besides, Ruby was mostly relieved that her dad didn't think to ask how Yang managed to acquire such high-quality prosthetics so quickly in an environment that was supposedly both remote and hostile. She'd have to ask Ozpin for suggestions on how to handle that question if it came up in a different conversation.

* * *

"Relay is live in three… two… one…"

Even with five jumps under his belt, MacAuley still had trouble getting rid of the butterflies that always started fluttering around in his stomach seconds before making the plunge. His grip tightened on the gun in his hand as the Hyperwave Relay flared to life with a deep thrum.

"Move! Move!"

With Captain Beagle shouting at his back, MacAuley willed his legs to move as he charged towards the swirling, purple portal. He cleared the top of the small ramp with a leap, fell through the transdimensional rift, and once again felt the familiar sensation of free-falling at several miles in the air.

" _Alright, team,_ " Beagle's voice crackled over the comms, " _Take a moment to orient, then deploy your wings on my mark._ "

MacAuley twisted himself around so that his chest faced the ground. Now that the 'hard' part of jumping through the relay was over, the Engineer could relax and enjoy the 'fun' part of the exercise.

" _Mark._ "

The six operatives deployed the Kingfisher's wings in near-perfect unison, and MacAuley smiled as he felt his flight path level out. His opportunity to appreciate the simple joys of flying was cut short, however, as another giddy yell over the comms signaled the arrival of Strike Five's 'prey.' A fun-sized ball of pink and orange hurtled past the team of operatives, followed by green-and-black, crimson-and-gold, and silver-and-blue.

" _Yeeeaaaaaahhhhh!_ " Nora shouted happily, " _Good luck trying to tag_ this _Valkyrie!_ "

" _Nora,_ " Jaune sighed, " _The idea was to be sneaky._ "

" _The power of Thor runs through my veins! If I wanted to be sneaky, I would've been born a descendant of Loki._ "

" _Ren…_ "

" _Not my fault that she found the superhero section of the Anthill's movie collection._ "

A small whine coming from his rifle caused MacAuley to glance down and see a little green indicator winking back at him.

" _Weapons free, boys._ " Beagle called out to Strike Five, " _Hunting Season is officially open. Don't forget, Vahlen wants us to field test the jump jet prototypes she added to the suits. Just don't go overboard and kill each other in a collision, alright?_ "

The six operatives peeled off from their tight formation and dove after their selected targets. MacAuley fell in with Beagle as the duo chased after Jaune. He locked eyes with his Captain, and the pair switched their comms to a private channel. Months ago, the two of them agreed that Bradford didn't need to hear _all_ the operation chatter that went on between the members of Strike Five; that decision came in handy now and again.

" _What's the play, boss?_ "

" _I'll go low while you stay high._ " Beagle answered, " _Try to keep to his blind spot if you can, and take the shot when you know you've got it._ "

MacAuley nodded and watched the Rocketeer sweep back his wings and dive bomb their prey. Beagle readied his rifle and unleashed a volley of minimum-power laser fire at Jaune. The hunter banked hard in response, evading the fusilade. From above, MacAuley tracked his friend but refrained from firing to avoid giving away his position. He saw laser fire light up the sky in his periphery as the other members of Strike Five zeroed in on their respective targets.

The dance of cat-and-mouse continued between Beagle and Jaune. MacAuley watched as Jaune would fake leveling out long enough for Beagle to line up a shot before he'd flare his wings and loop up to lose his assailant. Beagle managed to stay hot on his target's heels, thanks in part to the extra maneuverability provided by Vahlen's latest gift. This carried on for about half a minute, with MacAuley patiently waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike. The moment eventually arrived when Jaune performed a displacement roll in an attempt to shake Beagle, putting the hunter right in MacAuley's waiting crosshairs.

"Gotcha." The Irishman muttered as he squeezed the trigger on his rifle. The instant his weapon spat out its ammunition, Pyrrha flew up from below to intercept the laser fire. MacAuley watched in amazement as Jaune's partner stalled her flight long enough to absorb the shots with her shield before dipping back down, igniting her jump jets, and speeding off.

" _Where the fuck did her tail go?_ "

" _Chasing after JNPR's resident ninja._ " Beagle observed, " _Check your three o'clock._ "

MacAuley glanced in the indicated direction and sure enough, he saw three operatives tailing Ren while the last was, amusingly enough, being tailed by Nora. Even though all eight huntsmen showed impressive aptitude with the Kingfisher suits, Ren had turned flying into an art form. When the others were still learning various evasive maneuvers from XCOM's interceptor pilots, Ren was already elegantly dancing across the sky: impressive to watch, and impossible to catch.

" _Can someone please explain to Hammertime the concept of predator and prey?_ " Five-three whined over the comms.

" _Nora,_ " Ren said, " _Please stop chasing after the nice operative with Magnhild. It's not our turn to attack yet._ "

" _Awww._ "

The aerial war game continued for another ten minutes, with the operatives enjoying marginal success in their efforts to tag JNPR. MacAuley noticed just how coordinated the huntsmen had become. Little things such as Pyrrha's stunt with her shield demonstrated an impressive degree of situational awareness and general cohesion.. Their ability to exploit the strengths and cover the weaknesses of each teammate was, in MacAuley's opinion, a large factor in their success against Strike Five.

Vahlen's voice, slightly distorted by transdimensional static, carried over the comms, " _Final tally for War Game zero-zero-eight, Strike Five versus Team JNPR: thirteen hits scored on Lieutenant Arc; five hits scored on Sergeant Valkyrie; eight hits scored on Sergeant Nikos; and one hit scored on Sergeant Lie. Interestingly enough, this is the first time Ren has been hit. While it marks the end of his perfect run, I am now forty dollars richer than I was two hours ago._ "

The last comment elicited a round of laughter from the ten fliers before the doctor continued, " _Please proceed to the coordinates for the rendezvous point, which should be illuminated on your visors' heads-up displays. Once I have confirmation from Captain Beagle that all operatives are accounted for, I will reactivate the relay._ "

" _Sounds good, doc._ " Beagle answered, " _We'll see you soon._ "


	3. Evasive

A/N: I apologize for putting this up so late. I've been on vacation with my family over the past week, and we've had a pretty busy schedule each day. For those of you who have left questions for me via review or PM, I'm sorry for my lack of a response. I return home tomorrow, and I'll try to catch up on everything as best I can. It's still Friday in my current timezone however, so I'm going to say that I'm technically not late on posting this chapter. A quick reminder to those of you who've asked me about this story's posting cadence: the plan is to post every week-and-a-half, with the current schedule alternating between Fridays and Tuesdays.

* * *

"Blake!"

The huntress turned around to see two familiar faces running towards her along the sidewalk in Vale. With Ruby and Yang visiting their father, Blake and Weiss agreed to play host to the XCOM soldiers given leave to visit Remnant and carry out orders on Bradford's behalf. At the moment, this included a pair of operatives who had accompanied Colonel Zhang until his last stand during the alien's final base assault. Presently, however, Blake watched Sun ran up the street and flashed her a bright smile.

"Hey there." He said, "Haven't seen you around for a few weeks, so I figured you guys were doing another one of those secret mission dealy-o's like the one we helped out with a month ago. Heard you guys were back in town yesterday, so I tried giving you a ring."

Blake's heart skipped a beat. With everything else going on between XCOM, Ozpin, and her team's last-minute prep for the tournament, she totally forgot about reconnecting with some of the friends she made nine months ago. She pulled out her scroll and saw the 'missed call' notification.

"Y-yeah, sorry about that." She stammered, "It's been... hectic for us. I think we passed out pretty early last night, so I probably missed your call."

Neptune caught up with Sun and raised his hands in a placating gesture, "It's totally fine. We're just glad you guys are alright." He grinned at Weiss, "But it's definitely nice to see you again."

"Ahaha… yeah." Weiss said, silently wincing when Neptune's crestfallen face told her how cold that sounded. She didn't mean to be rude. His enthusiasm just sounded odd considering they were only lightly acquainted before RWBY disappeared for nine months. But of course, he didn't realize nine months had passed, and he didn't deserve to be met with a rude response. She added, "Sorry, that was uncalled for. It's, uh… nice to see you guys, too."

Sun and Neptune traded a brief look. _Since when did the Ice Queen ever apologize for anything?_ However, rather than start their first meeting in weeks off on the wrong foot, Sun opted to steer the conversation onto a safer course. He nodded at the two men walking with Blake and Weiss, "Friends of yours?"

Blake nodded, "Yeah, we met them on the… secret mission we just got back from." She gestured to them in order, "Lance Corporals Menezes and Vargova."

"Lance Corporals?" Neptune asked as he and Sun shook hands with the operatives, "Sounds like you guys were involved with something serious."

Vargova laughed, "Believe me you don't know the half of it."

"Oh yeah?" Neptune asked, "Got any good stories? Awesome Grimm fights?"

"Welllllll…" Menezes started, "I didn't see it myself, but I heard that Belladonna soloed a Death Stalker. She could probably tell you about it."

Neptune turned to Blake, eager for the huntress to get into the details of the battle. Sun, however, noticed that Blake looked like her thoughts were miles away from Vale, and he had a suspicion that quizzing her on the mission could be a really bad idea, "We can talk about that later. I'm sure the rest of her team has stories they can tell us, too when we all get the chance to hang out together." Rather than let the awkwardness hang in the air, he tried to (once again) change the subject, "I like the new duds, though. Those silk wraps look good on you."

Blake's hand reflexively moved to her arm when she realized Sun was looking at her limbs, "Yeah. They helped keep the sun off my arms during our mission."

Again, Sun noticed apprehension coming from his friend, so he thought that a little of his usual dorky levity could help Blake feel more at ease, "Well, they won't be able to keep _this_ Sun off your arms." He said with a wink. His confidence faltered when he saw the look of terror on Blake's face, "But… uhm… well, not right now of course. You've, uh… y'know… got other things to do, it looks like."

Blake nodded, turned around, and walked off without a word, the two Lance Corporals following close behind. Weiss sighed and smiled apologetically at the two confused huntsmen.

"It's not your fault, Sun," she explained, "The mission wasn't exactly… sunshine and rainbows, so we're still trying to readjust now that we're back." She glanced over her shoulder at Blake's retreating back, "Some of us are having more difficulty than others. Honestly, it's great to see you again." She turned to Neptune, "Both of you."

Neptune returned the smile, "Thanks. We should all get lunch sometime. Catch up and hear stories about your mission."

"The stories you're comfortable with telling." Sun quickly added.

Weiss smiled sadly, "Not too many of those, unfortunately. But lunch sounds lovely."

As they watched Weiss leave to rejoin her friends, Neptune asked his partner, "Is it just me, or did something seem off?"

"Not just you," Sun answered, "Everything I said made things more awkward, and I have no idea why."

"Must've been one hell of a mission."

"No kidding." Sun said, still watching Blake's retreating back, "Maybe I'm just imagining it, but they even _look_ older than they did two weeks ago. What happened?"

Neptune left the rhetorical question unanswered, but he couldn't shake the uneasy feeling that Weiss's 'sunshine and rainbows' comment was the understatement of the century.

* * *

Jaune paced back and forth across the practice room floor while his teammates stood at attention before him, "Alright team, we've got the first round of the tournament tomorrow, so I thought it would be a good time to practice our teamwork."

"Teamwork?" Nora asked, mildly incredulous, "Jaune, we've spent the last six months practicing teamwork killing ayys and taking lmaos!"

"And that's exactly why we need to practice, Nora." Ren answered for his leader, "After six months of wiring our brains for lethal combat, we need to retrain ourselves for a _friendly_ tournament. Also, you need to stop hanging out with Captain Beagle."

"Ren's exactly right." Jaune said, "As Glynda reminded us so many times leading up to this tournament, it's purpose is to promote cooperation and goodwill between the kingdoms. While we're expected to fight to the best of our abilities, it's probably not a good idea to fight with the ruthless brutality that was necessary to survive with XCOM."

Pyrrha nodded, "That makes sense. I take it you have a plan in mind?"

"Uhh… sort of? To be honest, I didn't get much further than 'fight each other while trying to think of it as a friendly match.' Hopefully even a little bit of time spent sparring will help with our fighting habits."

Nora hefted her hammer, "Do I still get to use my Kinetic Strike Module?"

"Probably not." Ren sighed.

"Well, we might as well get started." Pyrrha said, "Do we want to stick with our partners, then?"

Jaune shook his head, "I was thinking that I should fight Nora while you and Ren square off. Given Nora's penchant for smashing and my ability to tank, I figured it'd be a good pairing to start with. And then you and Ren can go all out with your high-speed fighting styles."

"You realize you just signed your own death warrant, right?" Nora asked, eyebrow raised.

"And you realize that we're supposed to be dialing back on the whole 'murder everything' mindset, right?" Jaune countered.

"Ugh, FINE." Nora groaned as she dropped into a battle stance, "C'mon, boss. Let's dance."

Jaune readied his shield and fixed Nora with a determined look, which the hammer maiden took that as her cue to start. She leapt at Jaune with an energetic yell, Magnhild raised above her head. Jaune's vision shook as Nora crashed into his defense and sent him skidding back several feet. He watched Pyrrha and Ren lock into melee with each other before he focused on his own opponent and dashed back towards Nora. Given the immense strength his opponent carried with each swing, Jaune made sure to prioritize defense over offense. Against any other target, he would risk suffering a hit or two if it meant sneaking in one of his own. With Nora? _Horrible_ idea.

Despite the weight of her weapon, Nora managed to dance around many of Jaune's strikes while using Magnhild's shaft to parry the rest. Several times, Jaune had to remind his friend to ease up on the force of her blows or to stop aiming for his head. While Nora made a noise of complaint whenever Jaune scolded her, he found himself correcting her less and less as their sparring match wore on.

What concerned Jaune, however, was the number of times he had to reign in his _own_ killer instincts. More than once, he suffered a blow from Nora after he froze in his tracks half a second before he would have jammed Crocea Mors into her gut. Sure, her Aura would have kept her safe, but that was besides the point. Jaune realized how easily his opponent morphed from Nora into a Berserker or a Chryssalid the moment he started to slip into the rhythm of combat.

Off to their left, Jaune heard a lot of grunting and clashing of steel as Pyrrha and Ren sparred. Even though Ren struggled to slip past his opponent's near-perfect defense, it didn't stop him from falling upon her with the fury of a lightning storm. To his credit, he parried most of Pyrrha's counter attacks and the sword strikes that did connect had no effect on his rapid-fire pace. Jaune watched Ren flow with Pyrrha's strikes to mitigate the damage before shifting the momentum into an attack of his own. Even when the occasional kick or shield bash crashed squarely into his gut, Ren offered little more than a pained grunt in response before launching himself back into the action. Compared to the intermittent power strikes Jaune and Nora were throwing at each other, the battle between their partners seemed to have no beginning or end.

Jaune also noticed that the two of them struggled to regulate their own lethal tendencies. More than once, he heard his partner's familiar "Sorry!" after a particularly brutal blow sent Ren tumbling across the arena floor. The low, uncharacteristic growl from Ren surprised even Nora to the point where Jaune managed to connect a pommel smash with her shoulder due to the distraction.

"How you doing, Nora?" Jaune asked, his chest starting to burn from exertion.

His opponent offered a toothy, though weary, grin, "Never been better, El-Tee."

"Think you can carry on like this for another round or three?"

"Does an Ursa shit in the woods?"

"Seriously Nora." Ren shouted over his fight with Pyrrha, "I'm banning you from hanging out with Beagle."

The scrimmage carried on, and an assortment of cuts, scrapes, and bruises started to accumulate as their Aura struggled to keep up with the slew of fresh wounds. Jaune felt his own soul force on the verge of giving out completely when he heard a voice from the back of the room.

"Dust, and I thought _my_ team trained hard."

The four huntsmen looked towards the doorway to see a set of semi-familiar faces. Then again, almost everyone at Beacon recognized the fashionable attire of one Coco Adel. She stood in front of her team, sunglasses pulled down just far enough so she could get a clear look at the battered freshmen standing before her. Jaune noticed that Velvet looked equally impressed while Yatsuhashi's face remained neutral. As for Fox… well, Jaune never Coco's team well enough to feel comfortable asking if Fox could actually see things with those eyes of his, or if he had another method of sensing the world around him.

"I mean, I always assumed that Nikos trained her ass off," Coco continued, stepping down past spectator seats in the training room to meet JNPR on the arena floor, "But it looks like the four of you dragged yourself through a combination of mud, barbed wire, and explosives."

"That last one's probably my fault." Nora admitted.

A small (though admittedly confused) blush creeped onto Jaune's cheeks. It was the first time anyone outside of RWBY or JNPR had paid him what he assumed was a compliment. The fact that it was given by one of the most popular huntresses at Beacon made it feel that much more meaningful. He rubbed the back of his neck and gave a nervous laugh, "Uh… thanks?"

"You look amazing!" Velvet exclaimed, "Well, I mean you look _horrible_ , but it just shows how hard you've been working, which is really impressive."

Yatsuhashi nodded in agreement, "The execution of your technique really conveys the strength of your conviction. Even though we only entered during the final minute of your match, I saw confidence behind each swing and thrust, as if you have drilled these forms for many years." He smiled at Ren, "Hello, Ren. I greet you like the sun greets the morning."

"And I welcome you like a butterfly welcomes the wind."

Coco's stare bounced between Yatsuhashi and Ren, "I feel like I'm missing something here."

"I am a regular at the meditation sessions Yatsuhashi leads every Saturday." Ren explained.

"Sometimes the _only_ other participant during those sessions." Yatsuhashi added, "He is a very skilled practitioner of the art."

Ren gave the gentle giant a bow, "I apologize for my absence these last few weeks. Rest assured that my perfect attendance will resume starting this week." Jaune heard him mutter to himself, "I need the mental relief now more than ever."

"Well I'm glad Yats has somebody else he can nerd out with instead of the rest of his team." Coco sighed,

"I find the meditation sessions to be helpful." Fox added.

Coco ignored him, "But I'm still really curious about you guys. With skills like that, I would've thought you'd be making waves like those gals from RWBY. Are you playing up the quiet underdog angle? Pretty ballsy move when you've got a four-time Mistrali champion in your midst."

"Well, to be honest, I wasn't much to look at when I first came to Beacon." Jaune admitted, "Pyrrha's been training me for almost as long as we've been partners, and that's really helped me improve as a huntsman."

Something must have clicked for the sophomore huntress, because Coco leaned in to have a closer look at Jaune, "Waaaaaaiiiiit a minute. I remember you. You're that hunky dude that showed up to the dance in a dress, right?"

"I… uh… Yeah." Jaune said, the last word barely above a whisper.

Coco laughed, "Not much to look at, my ass." She glanced at Pyrrha, "Must be nice to share a room with this guy, am I right?"

"I won't lie," Pyrrha giggled, "Being his partner definitely comes with some perks."

"You better keep that one." Coco said to Jaune, jamming a thumb in Pyrrha's direction.

"You act as if he has a choice in the matter." Nora said cheerfully.

"Not like I would want to make a different choice, anyway." Jaune countered, "When nobody else believed in me, Pyrrha did. She spent all of her free time training me, offering encouragement and advice, and giving me the confidence I needed to succeed. You only meet someone like that once in a lifetime."

Coco looked at Pyrrha, "You better keep that one."

Yatsuhashi coughed, "We didn't come here to embarrass our fellow huntsmen, Coco."

"Yeah, but a little bit of pre-training chit chat never hurt anyone." The huntress defended, "And aren't you the one who's always big on making new friends?"

"Yes, but not when they are trying to prepare for an international tournament."

"It's fine." Jaune said, "We're just blowing off some steam more than anything, really." He ignored Coco's (very) unladylike noise of disbelief, "I'm more concerned that we're cutting into _your_ training time. Do you need us to clear out so you can do your thing? I know there's more than enough room for two teams, but…" He tapped his head and grinned, "I also know more than most how head games can mess with performance."

CFVY's leader raised an eyebrow, "Well that doesn't sound ominous at all." She glanced at Yatsuhashi, "you getting ominous vibes, too?"

The swordsman nodded, "Perhaps there is a reason you are fighting as though your lives depend on it?"

The members of JNPR shared a heavy glance before Pyrrha offered a guarded answer, "It's… not something that's worth getting into, but you're somewhat correct: we're not your average freshman team."

"For reasons _other_ than having an accomplished Mistrali huntress on the roster, I assume." Coco guessed, "But I won't pry. From one woman to another, I can respect our need for secrets. Still, though… I'll be watching your opening match with interest."

"Unless we're the ones they're fighting." Fox pointed out.

Jaune shrugged, "I wouldn't mind that. Gotta be honest, I've always been interest in getting a closer look at your minigun, Coco. Even if it _is_ while I'm staring down its barrel"

A half-truth, given that Jaune only really gained an interest after spending months of heavy weapons training with XCOM. Either way, Coco flashed a grin and casually waved her handbag, "Oh, you mean this thing?" She gave it a shake, and Jaune watched it deploy into the impressive automatic weapon he briefly glimpsed during the Breach so long ago.

"She's my pride and joy." Coco beamed as Jaune walked around the massive weapon, "Well… second to Velvet, of course."

Jaune ignored the embarrassed protest from Coco's teammate and gently rotated the business end of the weapon in his hand, feeling the smooth motion as each of the six barrels clicked into place. Even though he never shared Ruby's level of enthusiasm for weaponry, he felt like he could spend a solid hour examining Coco's gun.

"Man, Beagle is going to freak out when he sees this in the tournament," He muttered, "I know this is going to sound weird, but… is it alright if I hold it?"

Nora let out a small gasp, "Asking to hold another woman's purse? In front of Pyrrha?!"

Coco gave him a hard stare. Jaune started to regret asking before Coco finally answered, "I don't think I've ever let someone else touch my baby unless it was connecting with their face in the middle of a fight. Buuuuuut, I think I can make an exception here." She glanced at Pyrrha, "Provided the missus is okay with it?"

Pyrrha nodded with an amused smile, "She is."

"Well, since you kids are growing on me, I'll allow it." She offered the grab bar to Jaune, "Just know that I'll have Yatsuhashi murder you if you drop her."

Jaune carefully took the grip from Coco and instinctively dropped into his usual braced stance. The balance of the gun felt wonderful, and he effortlessly swept the barrels across the room while imagining a squad of Mutons falling to the sheer volume of firepower he could put out with the firearm in his hands. He desperately wanted to pull the trigger and get a feel for the gun's recoil, but he knew better than to push his luck.

"Looks like this isn't your first time handling heavy-duty equipment." Coco noted, eyebrow cocked, "Don't tell me you're hiding something inside that sword of yours."

Jaune handed the minigun back to Coco with a laugh, "I wish. Sadly, not."

"Coulda fooled me." The huntress commented, packing her weapon back into its designer purse, "Well, we should probably get on with what we came here for. Thanks for the chat, and good luck with the tournament tomorrow."

Nora pounded one hand into the other, a grin on her face, "We're ready for a good ol' fashioned leg brea-" She cleared her throat after receiving a hard nudge from Ren, "We look forward to a jolly good rumpy-pumpy in tomorrow's festivities. Pip pip cheerio, and all that."

Jaune sighed as he watched Ren mouth the word 'banned' at his partner, "Don't mind her. We'll see you around, I'm sure"

* * *

The moment Bradford stepped through the Hyperwave Relay's portal, he felt the crushing weight of all his problems back on Earth magically evaporate. While he knew that he'd feel better after a visit to Remnant, the Central Officer didn't realize just how much stress he'd apparently burdened himself with over the last few months. The room he stepped into was spacious, commanded an impressive view of the surrounding geography and bright afternoon sky with floor-to-ceiling windows, and played up an interesting time motif with clockwork gears ticking and rotating just about anywhere Bradford looked. A single table stood at the far end of the room (framed, predictably, by a window resembling a clock face) with an elderly gentleman standing patiently in front of it. Grey hair capped a weary face, and curious eyes looked back at Bradford from behind a pair of spectacles. The confident posture and impressive attire told Bradford everything he needed to know.

"Ozpin?"

The man smiled, "And you must be Central Officer Bradford. A pleasure to meet you."

Bradford closed the gap between the two of them and offered Beacon's headmaster a hand for a more formal greeting, "The pleasure is all mine, believe me. I'm a bit embarrassed that it's taken me this long to finally get around to making the trip here and meeting you in person. Ruby's been bugging me for about a week now to come visit. And after all she and her friends have done for XCOM…"

"You feel slightly ashamed for not fulfilling her request sooner." Ozpin guessed, "I wouldn't worry about it too much. I've heard quite a bit about the difficulties you are facing with your Council of Nations, so it's perfectly understandable that you've been busy. What's important is that you are here now, is it not?"

"That's true. Speaking of 'here,' I'm guessing this is your office at Beacon?" Bradford asked, allowing himself another look around the room.

Ozpin nodded, "Indeed it is. We're standing on top of the most recognizable landmark of my school. Not only that, but this tower also serves as Vale's connection to the Cross Continental Transmit System."

"I think Ruby told me about that once… it's Remnant's technology for global interconnectivity, right?"

"Atlas's technology," Ozpin clarified, "But yes. It is how the four nations are able to remain in instantaneous contact with one another."

"And your office sits on top of Vale's tower." Bradford mused, "Something tells me that Ruby downplayed just how important you are in Remnant's politics."

The headmaster shrugged, "Or perhaps she isn't aware of it. To her, I am the wise, old headmaster of her school. While I may dispute the first half of that title, I have always believed it is best for my students to have a simplified image of who I am." When Bradford raised an eyebrow, Ozpin added, "However, considering the… unique circumstances surrounding RWBY and JNPR, perhaps it would be better for them to have a clear view of the bigger picture."

"Can't say I'd disagree with that. Ruby keeps talking about problems with the White Fang and other strange criminal activity. If there's something big going on in the shadows, I'd say that two teams of hunters that just spent the better part of a year fighting a global war are an asset worth bringing up to speed on the real situation."

"Mmmm. While it is undeniable that RWBY and JNPR have gained a tremendous amount of combat experience, I ask you this: just because we _can_ rely on them to help with Remnant's immediate problems, does that mean we _should_?"

Ozpin stepped around his desk and gazed upon Beacon through the clock window. Bradford fell in line next to him and let out a low, impressed whistle, "That's quite a school you've got there."

"And while its students are capable of wielding impressive weaponry and incredible power against the forces of darkness that plague this world, they are still students. Children. As strong as they are, I try my best to remind myself that many of them have yet to see the true evils of this world."

"Not all, though." Bradford pointed out, "While Ruby was definitely an idealistic teenager upon her first arrival at XCOM, I'm sure there are a lot of students that are more like Blake who have learned from a young age that the world is not a nice place."

"And is it up to us to decide how each student reaches maturity and comes to terms with the horrors and violence of war?" Ozpin asked, "But we can postpone this conversation for another time. I believe you've come to watch Ruby and her friends participate in the first round of the combat tournament. I can introduce you to my staff and several ambassadors from the other nations along the way."

The Central Officer nodded, "Sounds like a good idea to me. RWBY and JNPR have shared quite a few… impressive tales regarding the disciplinary actions of Miss Goodwitch. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't curious about how much of their stories were fact and how much were fiction."

"If I had to wager a guess, I'd say their stories are entirely fact." Ozpin answered, an amused twinkle in his eye, "You'll see for yourself soon enough."

* * *

After a short walk to the sky docks, followed by a quick airship ride, Bradford had the opportunity to truly appreciate the marvel of engineering known as the Amity Colosseum. He'd seen it from Ozpin's office, but it looked fairly small from a distance. Now, as Ozpin accompanied him off of the airship and onto the floating stadium itself, Bradford's first thought was to compare it to the Temple Ship. The arena itself looked large enough to host an extremely spacious combat field while still managing to comfortably seat thousands of spectators. The support structure below the arena also impressed the Central Officer, with airships parked at berths all around the circular building, spacious hallways forming a ring around the central rooms, and a dozen archways leading into what Bradford could only imagine were the logistical sections of the Colosseum. He noticed the massive dust structure during the airship's approach, and Ozpin explained that it was the source of the stadium's ability to remain airborne.

"What if it gets damaged?" Bradford asked as the pair slowly stepped off of the docking platform and along the outer hallway, "The Gravity Dust?"

Ozpin raised an eyebrow, "Interesting question. Technically, if the Amity Colosseum was somehow cut off from its source of Dust, the building would fall out of the sky. However," He added, seeing Bradford open his mouth in protest, "The four nations of Remnant have used this stadium for years, and it has survived the scrutiny and testing of the world's greatest engineers, scientists, and tacticians. If there was a way to sabotage Amity Colosseum without being detected by the festival's security detail, we haven't discovered it yet."

"The operative word there is 'yet.' Sooner or later, it's bound to happen." Bradford said.

"Just as XCOM's subterranean base of operations was bound to be discovered and attacked by alien assailants?"

Bradford laughed, "Yeah, but with fewer aliens. Though I'm still undecided if aliens are better or worse than Grimm."

"Are you feeling hungry at all?" Ozpin asked, changing subjects, "There are a multitude of concession stands located throughout the stadium. Given that you are an esteemed guest of mine, it would be my pleasure to get you anything that catches your eye."

Bradford shook his head, "I'm fine, thank you." He continued to look around at all the people walking by. It was easy to spot the hunters from the civilians, given their elaborate weaponry, their confident gait, and their (more often than not) unique choice of attire. He also noticed the security detail Ozpin mentioned: soldiers walking around in twos and threes, fully kitted out with armor and assault rifles. The military commander in Bradford wanted to ask Ozpin about the weapon and armor specifications carried by the soldiers, but decided he should try to enjoy himself rather than worry about every little thing. Besides, Ozpin had already mentioned that the soldiers were Atlesian and not Valean, "Big party you've got going on here."

"The Vytal Festival is perhaps the single most important international event on Remnant." Ozpin explained, "It's a celebration of the peace between our kingdoms, and the prosperity that has come with it. Eighty years have passed since the peace treaty was signed on the island of Vytal. It is my goal to ensure that such a peace continues to prosper for as long as possible."

"A noble goal. Is that the legendary Miss Goodwitch walking towards us?" Bradford asked.

Ozpin looked up and chuckled, "Indeed it is. How could you tell?"

"She's staring directly at you, and she doesn't look happy."

"Ah yes. That would do it." Ozpin agreed.

Glynda Goodwitch stormed up to the pair and came to a halt with her face mere inches away from Ozpin's.

"What is he doing here?" She hissed, "It's bad enough that James is suspicious of him, and now you're showing him around Amity? It's like you _want_ his little secret to be blown wide open!"

"I'm not sure what secret you're talking about, Glynda." Ozpin answered mildly, "Captain Bradford here is a respected commander of the Valean Recon Division that has returned from a rather critical operation to the south as of yesterday. Just in time for the Vytal Festival."

"Twelfth Division." Bradford added, offering a hand to Glynda, "I run a small operation of roughly twenty commandos, and I'm pleased to report that-"

"I know what your cover is." Glynda said with an eyeroll, "But what's going to happen when someone who knows we don't _have_ a Recon Division starts asking questions?"

"James seemed to take it at face value." Ozpin commented.

"That's because James is a-"

"… pompous prick with a thorny rod stuck up his ass?"

Glynda spun around and glared at the newcomer, a disheveled man that Bradford didn't recognize. The 'Zero Fucks Given' attitude he exuded, however, gave the impression that this man was an extremely capable agent, and he knew it.

"Good afternoon, Qrow." Ozpin sighed.

Ah, the infamous uncle of Ruby and Yang. After all the praise lauded upon him by Ruby, Bradford expected someone a bit more… presentable. Then again, maybe he won over the affection of his nieces by playing up the Cool Uncle angle. Qrow offered a wordless nod at the headmaster before turning his attention to Bradford. He sized up the man from head-to-foot, walking around him in a circle to perform a complete visual inspection from all directions before letting out a low, unimpressed grunt, "He doesn't look like much, Oz."

"And yet he's proven himself to be an extremely capable tactician time and time again."

"Yeah, speaking of that…" He stood in front of Bradford once more and leered at him, "You're the guy that let my two little girls go off and pretend to be soldiers in some war, right?"

Bradford remembered Ozpin mentioned Qrow as the third person privy to the 'secret' of where RWBY and JNPR really were for the last three weeks. He didn't need to keep his cover up for now, "The word 'pretend' implies that they never actually accomplished anything." Bradford countered.

"But you _did_ let them go into dangerous combat environments," Qrow pressed, "Let them risk getting themselves killed, repeatedly, over a matter of months? For a war they had no stake in? Even though they're kids?"

Glynda pinched the bridge of her nose, "Qrow, is this really the time?"

The Central Officer shifted uncomfortably, "When you put it like that, it sounds a lot worse than it seemed at the time. I was initially against it, mind you, but they were armed and trained fighters trapped on a secure military base. It was either try to enlist them, or keep them in lockdown in the brig. After spending a few months getting to know your nieces and their team, I am certain option two would have lasted for all of one week. Xiao Long insisted that and her team had the skills and experience necessary to survive in live combat."

"And you had reason to believe they were trained fighters because…?."

"Those weapons carried through the relay by Ruby and her team looked both functional and deadly." Bradford answered, "And close observations of their abilities during a week of on-base training confirmed my suspicions. While I still had reservations about hiring teenagers to join the squad, it wasn't the first time we let someone join below the age of twenty-one. Our top psionic operative is only a few years older than Yang, and she literally saved Earth from getting swallowed up in a black hole."

Qrow held Bradford's gaze for several tense seconds before cracking into a grin, "Good answer. I was just giving you crap, anyway."

"I'm… sorry?" Bradford asked in confusion.

"Can't imagine a more efficient way for them to grow the hell up and learn that the world isn't just fairy tales and daydreams. And yeah, while I would've found a way to bridge the gap between worlds and murder you in your sleep if they died, they're a couple of bona fide badasses now."

Bradford cast a glance at Ozpin that clearly asked 'Is he always like this?' while Ruby's uncle grabbed the Central Officer by the shoulder, "C'mon. The little kiddos are about to have their first match. I know a pretty good bar on board this hunk of steel where we can watch and knock back a few shots together. Y'know… get to know each other." He glanced over at Glynda, "She's not invited."

Glynda rolled her eyes as Qrow returned his attention to Bradford, "C'mon. Whaddyasay?"

"Actually, that sounds like it would be a good idea." Ozpin interjected, checking his scroll, "It appears I still have some… private matters that need attending to, so I need to bid our guest a temporary farewell at this juncture."

Bradford nodded, "Alright. I could probably use a stiff drink, anyway."

"Very good. I leave you in Qrow's capable hands." The headmaster turned to Qrow and gave him a stern look, "Play nice, Qrow. This man is an ambassador for an ally that could prove to be far more potent than any kingdom on Remnant."

Qrow rolled his eyes and turned to walk off with Bradford, "Yeah, yeah, I got you. Go and have fun meeting with Jimmy."

As Bradford walked with his new host, he couldn't help but ask, "You were kidding about murdering me in my sleep, right?"

"Nope."

* * *

A/N: Right, so I'd like to talk a little bit about narrative tone. Given that this is my second major writing project, I'm shooting for something that's a bit more ambitious than RWBY Within. Part of that is trying to use tone in a way that's more than "rah rah, gotta kill dem ayys." However, I'm noticing that my skill in proper use of tone isn't that great. Which is good! It means I'm learning something and working towards becoming a better writer. While it means that I'm not always 100% happy with my chapters when I post them, one reader pointed out that this is somewhere that fanfiction truly shines: I can take feedback, go back to what I've written, and try to make it better. This is something I didn't do with RWBY Within, but I definitely would like to take advantage of it for this story. One example we already have is Ironwood's aggression in his meeting with Ozpin last chapter. I meant to have it edited before posting this one tonight, but I haven't had the opportunity to get around to it quite yet.

So why am I saying all of this? Well, I would really appreciate feedback on the tone. I appreciate feedback in general, but I _really_ want to nail down tone for this story. In case I haven't done a good job conveying the tone for this opening act, I'm aiming for a superficial feeling of "It's good to be back" for RWBY and JNPR, with a second layer that hints at the ugly scars of the XCOM war just beneath the surface. Annette directly noticed this during her shopping adventure with Weiss, and I postponed the first tournament fight to include a few scenes in this chapter to further convey that feeling. If you have any opinions to contribute on the matter, I would love to hear them.

That's enough rambling for now, though. Thank you all so much for taking the time to read my stories, and thank you for the wonderful reviews that you leave week after week.


	4. Overpowered

A/N: Got this one up early, so let's call it even after the last one went up late. Quick note, I adjusted Ironwood's behavior in Chapter 2. As several people pointed out, the aggression he displayed was pretty uncharacteristic, so I dialed him back a bit and plan to maintain his respectful attitude moving forward.

* * *

Ruby stood ready with her team on one side of the impressive arena housed within Amity Colosseum. Finally, after months of struggle and suffering, of pain and loss, Ruby felt the stars aligning and returning her life back to the way it was. Except, she knew that she could never _completely_ pretend the last nine months never happened. While the emotional scars of the Long War may eventually heal with time, there was no denying that Ruby, along with her team, had changed.

Gone was the 15 year-old girl who just wanted normal knees. In her place stood a war-weary veteran, ready to lead her tight-knit squad into battle. Although her eyes still sometimes shone with optimistic naivete, a certain degree of cold cynicism and calculated planning frequently took hold instead. Weathered hands gripped Crescent Rose while muscled legs dropped slightly into a combat stance. With Captain Rose at the helm, there would be no survivors in her team's wake.

Ruby glanced at her partner, Weiss, and noted the effects of war had not left her alone, either. Rather than carry herself with the persona of a perfectly-poised princess that she spent her whole life cultivating, Weiss looked aggressive. Months of training and fighting as a shotgun frontliner left its mark on Weiss, and Ruby's enhanced senses could hear the pounding of her partner's heart as the adrenaline began to flow. She still wore her same old heels and combat skirt, but many of the loose ends were trimmed or secured for the sake of efficiency, and Ruby recalled being approached more than once for advice on whether or not she should cut her hair.

Blake and Yang suffered the greatest changes, for obvious reasons. Out of the four, those two looked the most tired, and Ruby couldn't blame them. Though the conversation with Taiyang went better than expected, it still reminded Ruby's sister of what she and Blake had left behind on Earth. Blake, too, was forced to acknowledge loss. For months, she clung to the hope that returning to Remnant might restore her semblance, allowing the amorphous shadows to sharpen into perfect doppelgangers once more. When she tested the idea shortly after her team's arrival on Remnant, Blake finally had to admit that some things aren't easily fixed. And while some of what was lost had a chance to be restored, other changes had a distinct air of permanence about them, and the two partners had already spent many months learning to adapt to their new situation.

And because strolling into the arena with limbs of alien steel would spark more than a few questions, the two partners modified their outfits to completely cover their arms and legs. Blake only needed to expand the black ribbon motif in her design to extend along the lengths of her arms, but Yang needed to cover her arms, legs, chest, and midriff. Loose pants accomplished this goal for her lower half while a zipped-up vest, undershirt, and silk wrappings covered the rest of her exposed regions.

In addition to the changes meant to cover their limbs, Blake and Yang agreed to add a few aesthetic modifications to their outfits. Ruby suspected it was so that they could feel like they had some control over the changes in their attire, and again, Ruby didn't blame them. They both wore small defensive pauldrons on their shoulders and hips, partly to protect the joints of their prosthetics and partly to provide hard points for a well-timed shoulder check (a habit they picked up from their time as MEC pilots). They each had also decided to add the other's emblem to their outfit as a nod to the bond they developed during the trials and horrors of the Long War: Yang's burning heart on the left side of Blake's waist and Blake's white flower on the wrapping covering Yang's right bicep.

The most significant change for Blake was the distinct lack of her bow. According to Yang, Blake struggled for a long time with the decision, wondering if she should keep that secret hidden for another time. She spent months on Earth with her ears free without fear of judgment or cruelty, but she spent even longer on Remnant forced to hide who she was in order to see the light of another day. Something (or someone) managed to convince Blake, however, that nothing good ever happens unless people are willing to struggle and suffer to see it through. So it happened that she decided to take the monumental leap of faith with her identity, and felt that the Vytal Festival would be a good place to reveal her faunus heritage.

Ruby liked to think that Blake's decision encapsulated the idea that there was more to the war than bitter sorrow. For every friend that the huntresses of RWBY lost, they gained ten more. Every sacrifice they made came with a multitude of opportunities for positive change. The people they worked with, trained with, and fought with all helped Ruby realize the importance of having a vision and having something worth fighting for. Vance, Zhang… the friends that she lost stayed with Ruby, reminding her with the weight of their pistol or the jingle of their tags that she was their living legacy. So long as her friends and family, living or dead, still believed in her, Ruby knew she could never lose sight of what she believed in.

She rolled her eyes as she recalled MacAuley trying to quote some show to her several days ago, saying that, "Even though Zhang is dead, he's right there on your back and here in your heart!" Sadly, the Irishman wasn't entirely correct anymore: after spending the last month on Earth growing accustomed to her new cape, it almost felt strange to be wearing her old one again. As much as she wanted to proudly wear XCOM's emblem across her shoulders, she understood Bradford and Ozpin's decision for secrecy until the conclusion of the Vytal Festival. At least she could still carry Aureate Mercy.

Across the center of the combat arena, Ruby assessed her team's opponents with a critical eye. Team ABRN, comprised of Arslan Altan, Bolin Hori, Reese Chloris, and Nadir Shiko, hailed from Mistral and looked ready for a fight. To the untrained eye, they appeared to be a competent and cohesive team. To RWBY, however, they were as green as grass.

"They don't look so tough." Yang commented.

"Neither does a Thin Man." Blake answered, eyes focused on the opposition, "Don't count them out until we've seen them fight."

Weiss nodded in agreement, "Yeah, the white-haired girl… Arslan? She carries herself with an air of confidence. Guess that's why she's their leader."

 _Ding_. The randomizer icon behind ABRN halted on an icicle-shaped icon.

"So are we tagging her as the HVT?" Blake asked.

"Sounds like a plan to me." Ruby agreed, "Though I'm not sure how I feel about Hoverboard to her left. She can probably do some real damage if we leave her alone and she gets the drop on us while we're busy with the rest of the pod."

"Team." Weiss reminded her, an amused smirk crossing her face, "They're a team, Ruby."

 _Ding_. And the randomizer selected a volcanic biome for the other half of the field.

Ruby groaned, "Right. Team. Blake? Can you keep tabs on Reese and shut her down if she gets too close?"

"Easily."

"Good." Ruby glanced back at the volcanic field locking into place behind them. While the assortment of crystallized Fire Dust and active lava geysers had the potential for some interesting tactical shenanigans, the XCOM Captain in Ruby wanted something that offered more in the way of defensive options, "Lava doesn't make for very good cover. Ideas?"

"Lots of high walls on the other side." Weiss observed, "Plus, my ice glyphs will be more effective in the colder environment."

" _Three._ " Port's voice boomed over the speakers.

"We could try a blitz." Yang suggested.

" _Two._ "

"Throw a bunch of firepower at 'em and rush past into the terrain?" Blake asked.

" _One._ "

"I like it." Ruby grinned.

" _Begin!_ "

RWBY readied their weapons and began to sprint across the field. Blake unloaded a flurry of bullets with her pistol while Yang rained explosive rounds down upon the huntsmen of ABRN. Ruby jumped into the air and fired Crescent Rose behind her to rocket into the sky and across the field. As soon as the first bullets echoed across the arena, Ruby was no longer in Amity, or even on Remnant. As she watched Resse take off to seek shelter behind an ice formation, the sounds of cheering and music faded to silence and Ruby's mind shifted into fight-or-flight, kill-or-be-killed. The white-haired martial artist fell into a defensive stance and channeled her Aura to deflect Blake's pistol fire while a third member twirled his staff to achieve a similar result. The fourth hunter on ABRN opted to drop back behind his teammates and take aim with his rifle at the charging huntresses.

At the apex of her arc, Ruby double-tapped Crescent Rose before pulling Aureate Mercy off of her hip and firing several Dust rounds from Zhang's hand cannon into her targets below. With shots coming from two different directions, the members of ABRN lost their focus and devolved into minor panic. As Ruby landed atop one of the icy plateaus behind her targets, she decided to… encourage the feeling of mayhem. Focusing on Nadir, reached into her psionic reserves and sent a small burst of energy at her victim while following up with a few more shots from her pistol. After some experimentation with her teammates since their return to Remnant, Ruby learned how to pull her psychic punches just enough to disorient (or panic) an Aura-wielding opponent instead of completely cripple them. She grinned as the gunner spun around in a circle while firing wildly at anything that moved. A few shots clipped the staff-wielder, who yelped in surprise from the friendly fire.

"Brace yourselves!" The white-haired leader shouted, trying to rally her allies as the remaining three huntresses of RWBY closed the final few steps to their targets…

… before dropping between their legs and into a power slide on a patch of ice expertly deployed by the team's resident Dust master. Yang fired a few parting shots and tripped the dizzy huntsman before grabbing onto Blake as the duo used Gambol Shroud's anchored ribbon to swing around into the safety of cover. A few glyph platforms later, and Weiss followed her teammates into the miniature labyrinth.

" _An interesting opening by Team RWBY!_ " Port shouted from the commentator box, " _Will they manage to pick off the members of ABRN one by one from the safety of the ice? Only time will tell!_ "

" _An astute observation!_ " Oobleck chimed in, " _While a direct approach tends to work well against Grimm, it's an excellent idea to employ more creative tactics against intelligent opponents. In this instance, I think it's safe to say that RWBY's gambit paid off._ "

A small bark carried out over the stadium's speakers, followed quickly by Oobleck exclaiming, " _No! Down, Zwei! You're not even supposed to be up here!_ "

Ruby dropped down from her perch and landed next to her partner, exchanging an amused look with Yang, "I guess that's one mystery solved. Now let's see if we can't finish this quickly. Blake? You wanna take point up top and keep track of our targets?"

Blake prepped her kusarigama and nodded, "Gladly."

"Weiss, you're on crowd control with your glyphs while Yang and I supply the muscle. Our opening bought us some time to get into a good position, so let's not waste it. Move out, but stay within range of covering fire."

Like a well-oiled machine, RWBY started their hunt. Blake hooked the end of Gambol Shroud onto Ruby's original perch and pulled herself up while the other three stuck to the canyon walls and advanced with a purpose. Ruby heard the sound of footfalls on ice a few seconds later and tried to key in on the direction of the source. Blake was still getting her bearings, and so Ruby couldn't expect any information from her Scout yet. She held up a hand, and her teammates took cover among the cliff walls and piles of snow and ice. Sure enough, the staff-wielder barreled around the corner and found himself face-to-face with three grinning huntresses. Yang blasted her way into melee, and when the huntsman managed to redirect her momentum with an impressive block from his staff, Weiss launched herself at their target to join the fray. The two huntresses quickly fell into a rhythm, tag-teaming the huntsman with slashes, punches, and well-timed platform glyphs.

With both Yang and Weiss locking down the target, Ruby had a chance to settle in and prepare for additional contacts. She touched a finger to her ear and was about to ask for a status update from Blake before she remembered she didn't have a comm piece anymore. Even so, Ruby found the answer to her question when Blake flung herself off of her perch and into the canyon with her teammates. Before Blake could even offer an explanation, Ruby saw ABRN's leader in hot pursuit, a white string tethering her to the ice formation as she arced through the sky and after her prey.

Ruby snapped her rifle up to her shoulder and fired off a quick shot. The Dust round connected with the huntress, throwing Blake's pursuer off of her original trajectory and sending her skidding into a three-point landing several paces away.

"Contacts." Ruby called out as the gunman vaulted over a low ice wall and helped his teammate to her feet, "Blake, find that flier and lock her down. I _really_ don't want her to pick and choose when she gets to jump in and join this battle."

"On it."

Blake leapt away once again while the rest of RWBY squared off with the newcomers. A protective wall of ice shot up in front of Weiss just as the gunner fired off a controlled burst in her direction. Ruby fired the last two round from Aureate Mercy at Nadir to draw his attention before readying her main weapon. She jumped up and let the recoil from Crescent Rose propel her at the two open targets. Her rifle folded open into a scythe just in time to take an opening swing as she flew past them. Although the martial artist deflected the swipe with a practiced palm strike, the force of Ruby's assault kept them off-balance. Ember Celica continued to ring out in the background as she landed on the cliff wall behind her targets. With a kick, Ruby came in low and fast for another pass at Arslan and Nadir. Her attack caused the gunman to trip (again) while Arslan deftly hopped over the swipe.

"Weiss! Platform!"

A glyph appeared in underneath Ruby, angled to allow the huntress to once again strike from the sky. As Nadir struggled to pick himself back up and Arslan kept her eyes trained on the immediate threat, Weiss prepared another glyph for a surprise attack from the ground. In between trading blows with Yang, Bolin managed to catch a glimpse of the plan and tried to warn his teammate before it was too late.

"Arslan!"

ABRN's leader glanced at Bolin, which had exactly the opposite effect of what the staff-fighter intended. Both Ruby and Weiss landed solid hits on the martial artist, knocking her off balance. Arslan threw her string into the nearby wall to avoid falling over, and Weiss threw a few Dust bolts at Nadir before moving to regroup with Ruby.

"This is almost too easy." Weiss muttered.

Ruby nodded in agreement, "If we can keep up the pressure, we'll have this done in no time."

Another explosive report from Ember Celica indicated that Yang's fight with Bolin continued to rage on. Ruby shared a nod with her partner before kicking off the wall and racing to her sister's aid. Yang looked over Bolin's shoulder at Ruby and grinned. Unsure of whether his opponent was bluffing or not, Bolin took the safest option and launched into a flurry of defensive swings and swipes with his staff. Ruby unfolded Crescent Rose into its war scythe position and held it out as she slid past her target on the ice. Her weapon clashed with Bolin's, leaving the huntsman open for a haymaker from Yang.

" _Oh, that looked like it hurt!_ " Port called out, " _A direct right hook from Xiao Long is not something I would wish on my worst enemy._ "

" _But you would wish it on an Ursa._ " Oobleck said.

" _Obviously._ "

"I can finish up with this guy, then help Weiss with the other two." Yang told Ruby, "You go and back up Blake."

Ruby glanced at her partner and watched Weiss use her glyph-borne mobility to keep Arslan and Nadir occupied by dodging from cover to cover within the canyon while unleashing icy missiles from Myrtenaster if either opponent tried to divert their attention to Ruby or Yang.

"Yeah, okay." Ruby agreed

She decided to leave another psionic gift for Nadir, who dropped to one knee and clutched his head, muttering, "Oh no, not again…"

Satisfied that her teammates had the canyon fight well in hand, Ruby raced off through the canyon to support Blake. The speed demon pounded down the open trench before planting her scythe into the ice to rapidly round the corner and shoot out into the open center field. Her supernaturally-enhanced instincts kicked in, and Ruby easily located both her ally and enemy weaving through the active lava geysers on the far side of the arena.

" _What an impressive game of Cat and Mouse we have unfolding away from the main fight!_ " Port called out, " _Belladonna and Chloris are really going at it._ "

Port's comparison to a cat chase was indeed accurate. An airborne Reese hounded after Blake, who managed to evade her assailant through a combination of the burning geysers and clever use of her shadow clones. Even though the situation looked grim for Blake, Ruby knew better: her teammate's evasive actions were meant to keep Reese distracted and away from the main fight. Rather than risk a lucky hit from her opponent, Blake played to her own strengths and led the huntress on a merry chase until backup could arrive.

Reese, to her credit, displayed a great deal of skill with her weapon of choice. The fancy footwork, the aerial control, and the ability to seamlessly switch between a hoverboard and a pair of handguns… Ruby had to admit she was impressed. Of course, that didn't mean she would let the huntress continue to freely chase after Blake. Clear of the slippery ice, Ruby put on another burst of speed and moved to assist Blake. Once she was close enough to her target, Ruby slammed Crescent Rose into the ground and used it as an anchor to swing her around into a high kick at Reese.

The huntress, taken off guard by the sneak attack, barely managed to swing her board up in time to block the kick. The force of Ruby's strike sent Reese careening backward through the air. Ruby and Blake made to pursue, but a gout of flame shot up from the earth and temporarily blocked their way forward. After the flame cleared out, the two looked around, but found no sign of their prey.

"Well this is mildly embarrassing." Ruby muttered as she carefully advanced with her teammate.

"Tell me about it." Blake answered, "I can _feel_ her presence, but all the heat and noise is throwing my senses off.

Another explosion of flame, this time at their rear, came from one of the fire crystal formations. Ruby and Blake spun around in time to see Reese, her board now a burning red, sail out of the fire towards them. At the apex of her arc, the hoverboard split into two, and the huntress grabbed one half in each hand. Reese fired a few burning rounds from her handguns to put Ruby and Blake on the defensive before bringing the spiked ends of the weapons to bear as she careened through the air at her foes. As Reese continued to fall, the back of Ruby's brain started to tingle. Even though Ruby didn't have Annette's ability to pick out surface thoughts with her psionics, she did have an easier time gauging emotions. And the one she felt coming from Blake felt wrong. It felt like…

Absolute panic.

 _Oh no…_

Ruby and Blake rolled out of the way of Reese's surprise attack, and the latter immediately launched into a flurry of blows as a direct counteroffensive. A sound strategy, to be sure, except Ruby knew that Blake's instincts had associated Reese's ambush with a certain Chryssalid leaping out of a shark and ratcheted up the intensity of her attack to match the perceived situation. With Blake's kill-or-be-killed mindset, Reese didn't stand a chance.

 _Blake! Stop!_

The crowd cheered as Blake chained an impressive string of attacks together. She practically teleported around her victim, landing blow after blow with fury in her eyes.

 _Blake! Calm down!_

With a final kick to the back of the head, Blake sent Reese skidding across the floor. Ruby checked the scoreboard and saw that Reese's Aura had dropped below the knockout value, but that didn't stop Blake from charging forward to deliver the Coup de Grace. Telepathic words weren't registering with Blake, so Ruby did the only thing she could think of: she launched herself at Blake with both arms poised to tackle, and her mind revved up and ready to send a surge of psychic energy at her friend if necessary. The two went tumbling across the fire field and rolled to a stop as Port announced over their heads.

" _Looks like Miss Belladonna got slightly carried away with the fight. Thank goodness for teammates!_ "

* * *

"Well that was certainly an interesting trick." Qrow commented, knocking back another mouthful of brandy as he watched the video screen in the bar.

Bradford slammed his own glass onto the counter and cleared his throat while the liquid fire burned his stomach, "Yeah… I'm concerned about Blake's reaction, but if there's anything I've learned about your niece, it's that she's extremely resourceful."

"You think I don't know that?" the grizzled hunter smirked before washing more alcohol down his throat, "I taught that kid everything she knows."

"Everything?" Bradford asked, amused.

Qrow shot him a mild glare, "Yeah, _everything_."

"Squad leadership?" Bradford asked, "Encoding orders? Target prioritization? Asset allocation? Flight contol? Joint strike coordination? Psio-"

"Alright, alright! I get it." Qrow grumbled.

The Central Officer shrugged, "Eight months is a long time. That's all I'm saying."

Apparently enough time to develop some serious PTSD, it seemed. Vahlen never said anything about Blake cracking from stress, but it look like something triggered her just now. He'd have to make a note to talk to her about it later.

On the screen, the arena camera panned back to the icy half of the stage while Port continued to commentate, " _With both Chloris and Hori out of the match, things aren't looking good for ABRN! Can they pull a win out of this situation? Only time will tell!_ "

* * *

"Weiss!"

"On it!"

A platform appeared beneath Yang's feet, which the brawler used in combination with the recoil from her gauntlets to launch herself high into the air. At the apex of her arc, another glyph winked into existence just below Yang's body. She pivoted herself around and blasted through the glyph, her body's temperature dropping from the symbol's chilly effects. Half a second later, she slammed her fist into the ground and an ice nova struck her two foes and blasted them off their feet.

Without giving them a chance to rest, Weiss brandished her rapier and sent a small swarm of Dust projectiles flying at her stunned targets. Nadir had enough situational awareness to realize the danger and threw himself in between Arslan and the attack. The bolts slammed into his abdomen and chest, sending the huntsman skidding across the ice. The sound of an overhead buzzer indicated that his aura had dropped below the knockout value, leaving his team leader as the final contender for ABRN.

"Weiss, brick me." Yang said. Weiss knew what she meant (somehow) and a tire-sized chunk of ice rose up from the ground in front of Yang. The huntress grabbed it, twisted it free from its mount, and looked over her shoulder at the recovering form of Arslan.

"Hup!" With a heave, Yang chucked the block of ice into the air before leaping up and sending the projectile hurtling at her foe with an explosive punch. The ice collided with the huntresses chest, shattering into a thousand little pieces and knocking her to the floor once again. Yang was about to follow up and finish off the martial artist with some hand-to-hand combat, but a curious sight stayed her fist. Arslan sat on the floor, making no effort to get back up. A taunt caught itself on the tip of Yang's tongue when she saw the huntresses eyes glisten. In that moment, it dawned on her that the complete and utter beatdown of ABRN had broken Arslan's pride, and Yang realized that she needed to finish the fight quickly and painlessly.

Her teammate, however, seemed to have a different idea. With a small voice in the back of her head reminding her that "It's not dead until it's _dead_ ," Weiss seemed to believe that Arslan's actions were a feint. She needed to be sure that the target stayed down, and the heiress just so happened to have the perfect tool to accomplish that goal. With a flourish of her weapon, a large and intricate glyph materialized behind Weiss, and a Boarbatusk charged out from the aether and barreled straight into a very surprised Arslan. The two bodies slammed into the canyon wall, where the summon vanished and the huntress crumpled into an immobile heap. The buzzer overhead once again rang out to declare Arslan's elimination and RWBY's victory.

" _A rather brutal finisher from miss Schnee results in the elimination of the final member from Team ABRN!_ " Port exclaimed, " _That one looked like it_ definitely _hurt!_ "

Weiss looked back at the sound of two pairs of feet hitting the ice behind her to see that Ruby and Blake had returned from dealing with Reese.

"Was that necessary?" Ruby asked, eyebrow raised.

"I-." Weiss looked over at the cavity in the ice wall, then at Arslan's body just below it. She sighed, "No… no, it wasn't."

* * *

"Well that was… extremely aggressive. Even for a Schnee." Ironwood said.

"An effective way of finishing the match." Ozpin commented, "Though I agree that it might have been a bit much. I think a talk with her team leader is in order. While they've been through quite a bit over the past few weeks, we do need to keep public opinion in mind "

The two men continued to watch the arena below from their private box high above the primary stands. With the match decided by a rather embarrassing shutout, RWBY quickly left the field while the members of ABRN picked themselves up and meekly followed suit.

"Changing subjects…" Ironwood started, "Our mutual friend, mister Polendina, would like to know if you intend to ever return the copy of his… ah… daughter to his possession. Now that I've been made aware of your Bradford, I'm assuming that he was the one who requested the use of Penny."

"He was, and I do." Ozpin said, "But not yet."

Ironwood raised an eyebrow, "Are you holding Penny hostage? Because that's what that sounded like."

"A rather serious accusation, James." Ozpin answered, clearly unfazed by Ironwood's tone, "But no, I am not holding her hostage. I have been advised to keep the alternate Penny safe for the duration of the festival, for two separate reasons." It wasn't entirely untrue: while Vahlen's primary reason for requesting more time with Penny was rooted in science rather than safety, she did point out the possibility of complications during the reintegration process.

"First, there will likely be, for the lack of a better term, 'growing pains' when the two versions of miss Polendina attempt to become a single entity." He swirled the contents of his mug and looked directly at Ironwood, "As I understand it, our mutual friend intends to demonstrate Penny's prowess by entering her into the tournament, correct? There is a non-trivial possibility that she would have to withdraw if we attempt to upgrade her now."

"Upgrade?" Ironwood asked, slightly incredulous.

"If you've read the reports I have regarding Penny's combat actions under Bradford, you would be agreeing with me whole-heartedly." Ozpin clarified.

"May I see them, then?"

"No."

Sigh, "Your second reason?"

"We have already met in the past to discuss some of the more concerning events leading up to and surrounding the Vytal festival." The headmaster continued, "I won't insult your memory by repeating them here, but suffice to say that nobody -civilian or huntsman- is immune to the potential dangers that may arise should some sort of attack actually happen. Penny is in the unique situation where she _does_ possess a degree of immunity, as her digital copy currently resides in a safe location."

"You are assuming that all mister Polendina needs to restore Penny is a digital backup of her memories and programming." Ironwood answered.

"Is that not preferable to the alternative of 'absolutely nothing?' "

Ironwood had no response. Ozpin took his companion's silence as evidence that their conversation had reached its end, "If you don't mind, I think some combination of congratulations and admonitions are in order for the latest victors of the tournament."

Ozpin stood up, grabbed his mug and cane, and gave his companion a courteous nod before heading for the door.

"Ozpin." Ironwood called out. Beacon's headmaster stopped and tilted his head to indicate he was listening, "This is a dangerous game we are playing. If you are withholding anything, _anything_ , that I could use as the head of security for the festival, please reconsider your silence. The safety of our students may depend on it."

Ozpin briefly hesitated before answering, "Of course, James."

With that, he left Ironwood alone to his thoughts.

* * *

"Hey."

Arslan looked up from her locker to see four faces poking in through the doorway. Team RWBY, the freshman huntresses that made her team look like a bunch of incompetent kindergardeners, had apparently stopped by to gloat. Arslan noticed that Bolin and Nadir had also halted their usual locker room routine to watch the unfolding scene.

"What do you want?" Arslan asked as she returned her attention to her locker.

Ruby stepped forward, hands behind her back and head slightly bowed, "To apologize."

That got Arslan's attention. Still, she tried to act casual and disinterested, "Apologize for what? It's a tournament. You're supposed to give it your all."

"There's a difference between giving it your all and humiliating your opponents, especially in a tournament that's supposed to promote unity and friendship across the kingdoms." Ruby said.

"Glad you finally noticed." Arslan quipped. Silence ensued as the Mistralian continued to busy herself with her locker. One of Ruby's teammates (the Schnee, which did not surprise Arslan whatsoever) grew impatient with the lack of conversation and spoke up.

"Look, I understand that you're upset. I'm sure you trained extremely hard to compete in the tournament. But being petty and refusing to accept an apology is childish!"

Arslan glanced at Weiss and raised an eyebrow, "Just as childish, apparently, as someone who seems to think that saying 'whoops, I'm sorry' will magically make everything better." She finally dropped the locker facade and shut the door to give her full attention to RWBY, "You're right, we worked our asses off to earn a spot in the tournament. And while I know we aren't amazing, that was the single most embarrassing loss of my entire life. Right off the bat, you make us look like fools, and then you proceed to pick us apart like we're some sort of plaything. Reese is getting treated for multiple lacerations and a concussion as we speak, and I'm still trying to figure out why you decided to finish the match by hurling a block of ice into my face and _smashing me into a wall with a Boarbatusk_." A small part of Arslan felt satisfaction when she saw the stupid princess wince, "I was on the floor, waiting for a quick end to my nightmare, and you decide that an unnecessary show of force was the best way to cap off the match."

"That… was a mistake." Weiss admitted.

Arslan threw up her hands in frustration, "Understatement of the century, right there! So no, I will not forgive you simply because you decided to stop by and say some words. And besides, there's more."

"What is that supposed to mean?" Yang asked, a tinge of annoyance in her voice.

"Funny _you_ should ask." Bolin answered, "Because it's actually about you."

Yang raised an eyebrow as the huntsman stood up and leaned against his locker, arms folded with a look of disgust on his face, "You think you're pretty clever wearing those sleeves, don't you? You think nobody will ever suspect you're augmenting your strength with hidden servos and reinforced steel. I knew something was up when you landed that first punch to my face -thanks for that, by the way- and then when my staff started to ricochet and vibrate whenever you raised an arm to block it? I didn't need any more evidence after that." He nodded his head at Blake, "Bet your girlfriend over there has some mods, too. Can't see a single patch of skin below her neck."

Yang was already slowly boiling over as Bolin laid his accusations at her feet, but his jab at Blake caused the huntress to completely flip her lid. Her eyes turned red, she drew herself up to her full height as she stepped towards Bolin, and Ruby saw her hair begin to smolder. She needed to intervene, and quickly. Blake, however, diffused the situation first.

"Yang." One single word was the only thing that came out of Blake's mouth, but its purpose and meaning took immediate effect. Yang clenched her fists, took in a deep breath, and stepped back.

" _Do not_ speak that way about Blake ever again. You have no idea what we've been through." She whispered dangerously, glaring daggers at Bolin.

Heavy silence fell across both teams before Arslan made an amused noise in the back of her throat, "So you see why we're maaaaaybe not in the mood to simply forget the last twenty minutes and be all chummy with you. After spending an entire year training to prove that Haven can put out competent huntsmen, my teammates are left wondering what the hell we're doing with our lives."

Something in Arslan's last statement must have struck a nerve with Ruby, because her eyes grew wide, then furious, "What are you doing with your lives? _What are you doing with your lives?_ Have you forgotten that there's more to being a huntress than a stupid tournament? How about protecting the people? Stopping criminals? _The Grimm?_ So what if you suffered a shutout in a tournament? You shouldn't be 'working your asses off' just for bragging rights, you're doing it because people's lives are at stake! If you don't think your team is as good as it can be, then by all means train! But do it for the right reasons!

"Yes, Blake's reaction to Reese's ambush was bad, but let me tell you this: she didn't pick that up from fighting training dummies. When you've seen the enemy, when you've found yourself in some seriously bad situations, your survival instincts are forced to adapt. Our team is in the middle of dealing with some issues right now, and I'm really sorry that you and your friend were on the receiving end of the unfortunate collateral damage, but welcome to the business of being a huntress."

Ruby took a deep breath and locked eyes with the stunned Arslan, "So here's the way I see things: you and I are on the same side. When it comes to a threat like the Grimm, there's no such thing as too many allies. Even though you probably remember our fight a little differently, I saw a match against a team that demonstrated adaptability and the potential to improve. A team that I would like to call my friends, that would have my back when things really mattered, knowing I would do the same for them without hesitation. Are you willing to drop a petty grudge and recognize that we both want the same thing? Or are you going to be a child and continue to nurse your wounded pride?"

Arslan bit her lip. As much as she still had no warm feelings for RWBY, their leader clearly spoke with a passion that came from the heart. Ruby's words weren't some phoned-in apology, and Arslan knew that the kid wasn't even obligated to apologize in the first place. She glanced at her two teammates, who could do little more than shrug at their leader. She closed her eyes, sighed, and nodded at Ruby, "Yeah. I am."

"Glad to hear it." Ruby answered , "I don't expect us to be friends anytime soon. I understand that what we did was awful, and it will take time for that wound to heal. But I hope that over time, you'll realize that we didn't do what we did out of malice. Honest mistakes happen, and I hope we can be on friendlier terms when we prove to you that today was an honest mistake on our part."

Silence met Ruby's statement, though it wasn't cold like before. Ruby tried to feel the surface emotions from the huntsmen of ABRN, and all she could feel was fatigue.

"We'll leave you to finish up in here." She finished, "But if there's ever anything I can do to make things right between us, I'm one scroll call away."

She placed a scrap of paper on the bench next to Arslan before leaving with the rest of her team.


	5. Dark Events

"Well that could have gone better." Weiss said with a sigh as she lazily twirled the last few strands of noodles around her fork.

"It could have gone a lot worse, too." Ruby pointed out, "I honestly wasn't expecting her to acknowledge that forgiveness was the right choice. Not that quickly, anyway."

The two partners sat at one of the food stalls in the bustling festival fairgrounds. Ruby wanted to celebrate their victory with a team lunch, but Yang asked if she and Blake could go off and do their own thing. Knowing that they wouldn't have asked without good reason, Ruby had to give up the idea of lunch for four. That being said, lunch with Weiss sounded just as enjoyable, so everything worked out fine in the end.

Weiss set down her noodle bowl and idly glanced around the fairgrounds. She watched lots of happy people, natives and tourists alike, enjoying the festival's offerings and going about their merry way without a care in the world, "Do you think JNPR is having the same kind of difficulty adjusting?" She asked.

Ruby stared pensively at the remains of her own meal and thought about Weiss's question. The first three months of RWBY's 'tour of duty' were the most brutal, and JNPR was lucky enough to miss out on those. And thanks to Jaune's sacrifices, they only spent a month at most without their Aura. Sure, the war was just as horrific after the introduction of the Ethereals and the Grimm, but a lot happened in those first few months that really changed RWBY.

"I hope not." She finally answered, "It's probably bad enough for Ozpin having one team with anger problems. Let's hope that number doesn't change to two."

Weiss nodded, though the ringing of her scroll interrupted their peaceful moment. Ruby watched Weiss pull it out, glance at the caller ID, and roll her eyes with a groan, "I need to take this. You don't mind if I leave you to finish your meal alone, do you? I don't know how long the call will take."

It was Ruby's turn to roll her eyes, "It's just noodles, Weiss. We're not at The Spaghetti Factory in St. Louis eating a three-course meal or anything. Go take your call."

Weiss offered her partner a smile before heading off and answering her phone. Curious, Ruby used her psionically-enhanced senses to figure out who was so important that Weiss couldn't ignore. The moment she heard the words 'Hello Father,' however, Ruby immediately turned off her supernatural hearing. Ruby didn't know Weiss's father, but she had a rough idea of his personality from the rare occasion when Weiss spoke of him. Whatever he called to talk about, that conversation should definitely remain private. She could ask about it later, and Weiss would have the opportunity to divulge information on her own terms. For now, Ruby had time to kill a bowl of noodle scraps to finish, so she picked up her fork and dug back into her lunch, idly wondering if she'd run into any old acquaintances at the fairgrounds.

Out of all the people Ruby wanted to see, the only one who seemed to be interested in re-introductions happened to be the absolute last on her list. As she continued to enjoy her meal, a lone figure watched from a ways off. After weeks of wondering where Ozpin's favorite freshmen had wandered off to, after their _perfect_ buddies from JNPR apparently found out and ran off too, some of their classmates had written them off as dead when no news or official announcements were made about their absence. Now, they conveniently show up just in time for the Vytal Festival, and they've demonstrated a degree of skill in combat way above what they possessed three weeks ago. Well, even if Cardin Winchester's chances for placing in the tournament plummeted in the last few hours, at least he'd have the satisfaction of finding out where the hell Ruby and her merry band of idiots disappeared to.

Was he overreacting? Probably, though he felt justified in his annoyance all the same. He knew that his own team wasn't particularly impressive in, well, much of anything. The idea that RWBY could disappear for weeks at a time, and then reappear without any explanation or reprimand from Ozpin… it just reeked of favoritism. And since Cardin only approved of favoritism that benefited him in some way, he needed to vent his frustration somehow.

He watched while Ruby and the stupid heiress ate their meal (honestly, the idea that the Schnee had deigned to order from a noodle shack surprised Cardin), waiting for an opportunity to interrupt and get some answers. While Cardin knew that Ruby was a skilled huntress, he also knew that he'd rather take his chances with her over any of the other three: her sister was terrifying, her partner's family would probably send hitmen after him if he tried to pull anything with her, and he just found out that the dark one was a faunus (and, therefore, not worth his attention). At least he could use Ruby's diminutive size to his advantage when the time was right to make a move.

It didn't take long for Ruby to get lost in the flavors of her food again after the Schnee ditched her, and Cardin watched his mark sit back and sigh contentedly with her eyes closed. His hands shook with excitement as he slowly approached the unsuspecting huntress. He played the scenario through his head to figure out how he could make any bystanders think he was just saying hi to an old friend while making it perfectly clear to Ruby that he wanted answers. By the time he reached his target, he settled with dropping a heavy hand onto her shoulder and squeezing like a vice. Maybe he'd feel better after getting a good scare out of Ruby.

"Ruby, my old- _oh shit!_ "

Before he could deliver his totally sarcastic, totally awesome one-liner, Cardin found himself with a very ornate handgun pressed up under his chin. He didn't know where Ruby got it from, but he was more concerned with why her first reaction was to pull it out and jam it into his face.

"Don't shoot! Please!" Cardin exclaimed, voice panicky. He glanced around and noticed several bystanders watching the scene. An armored tower of a man getting schooled by a little girl? This was _not_ going the way Cardin imagined.

Ruby's eyes narrowed, "The hell do you want, Cardin?"

"Just to talk!" Cardin groaned, eyes still glued to the weapon in Ruby's hand, "It's been a long time since you've shown your face around here, and I-"

"Bullshit. I'll say it again: what do you want? Don't make me ask a third time."

Great, now he couldn't even get a word in edgewise before getting cut off by the little twerp. The cold steel of the handgun still pressed against his neck made Cardin wonder just exactly what had… corrupted the annoyingly naive schoolgirl he used to know. Before Cardin could answer, another voice cried out, "Ruby!"

Both students turned to see a wide-eyed Weiss rounding the corner.

" _Ruby!_ " Weiss repeated with a hiss, her eyes glancing back and forth between her partner and the handgun. Ruby followed Weiss's gaze to the handgun, and Cardin noticed her eyes unfocus before she cried out as if she just now realized she had the barrel of a gun pressed up against a classmate's throat. She immediately pulled the gun away and almost tripped over herself as she backed up from Cardin as fast as possible. She saw Blake and Yang out of the corner of her eye, drawn in by the growing commotion.

"I… uh… I…" She fumbled, scrambling for an explanation of her behavior. Yang stepped in front of her sister and glowered at Cardin.

"What did you do to my sister?" She seethed, her eyes flickering red for a brief moment.

"What did _I_ do?" Cardin sputtered, " _I_ wasn't the one pointing a loaded gun at a classmate!"

"And exactly how do you know it was loaded?" Weiss asked, her voice colder than usual.

Good point. Cardin didn't really have an answer for that one, "Well, you know… hunters never… uhm…"

"Just go, Cardin." Yang said, her fists clenching and unclenching.

"This isn't over!" He shouted as he stormed off, glaring daggers at Ruby, "Ozpin will hear about this!"

Yang shook her head and turned back to focus on her sister. Ruby had already put Aureate Mercy back on her hip, and now she was staring silently at her hands, eyes wide.

"I thought he was a Seeker." She whispered, "He just grabbed me, I reacted… and then when I realized it was just Cardin, I got _furious_."

"It's alright, Ruby. That jackass totally deserved it." Yang said, forcing a smile onto her face.

Blake shook her head, "Cardin deserves a lot of things, but we also have to consider the thoughts and emotions of uninformed bystanders. With so many people in one place, it could be bad if we caused a panic. Ironwood's military fleet is bad enough for morale as it is."

"Not helping, Blake…" Weiss muttered.

"At the same time, I understand what it's like to react… poorly." Blake admitted, "I suspect that memories of the war aren't going to stop haunting us for a long time."

"Well that was interesting." The four huntresses looked up at the new voice and saw a smirking green-haired huntress staring back at them, "Didn't know you had a mean streak in you, Ruby."

"I don't!" Ruby squeaked, "It was just a misunderstanding."

"Cardin's always been a bully for as long as we've been at Beacon." Blake explained, "Anything less than a direct confrontation would have been too subtle to put a stop to it. Believe me, we've tried. Hello…" Blake wracked her brain to remember the girl's name, "… Emerald."

Emerald grinned, "Relax, I'm just pulling your leg. At any rate, I can't say I didn't enjoy watching him squirm. I've only known Winchester for a few weeks, and I'm already sick of him. You gonna be okay?"

Ruby nodded, slightly surprised by the amount of subtle venom she noticed in Emerald's voice and facial expression when she talked about Cardin, "Yeah, I'll be fine. It's just kinda stressful to finally stand up to that jerk, you know?"

"Well good on you for sticking up for the little man. That's not why I stopped by to say hello, though. I wanted to congratulate you on your win." Emerald flashed a smile and gave Ruby a thumbs up, "You guys looked totally awesome out there!"

"I… thanks?" Ruby said. Her team had made Emerald's acquaintance before their adventure on Earth, but that was almost a year ago from their perspective. Ruby couldn't remember how friendly they'd been before the XCOM war, and wondered briefly why Emerald would go out of her way to seek out her team just to congratulate them. Maybe she was just trying to get to know them better, but something seemed off about her smile, like it was too big to be greeting someone she hardly knew. Still, Ruby decided she should be a little more gracious in accepting the girl's compliment, "ABRN put up a good fight, but it wasn't that difficult, to be honest."

Emerald laughed, "Yeah, kinda sucks for them to get smoked in the first round, but that's reality for you. Any idea about who you're gonna advance to the next round?"

"We talked about it a little." Yang answered with a shrug, "I believe we were considering… Weiss and me? Right guys?"

There. Ruby saw it in her eyes for a fraction of a second: she didn't know exactly what dilating pupils meant, but all those buddy cop movies she used to watch with Yang always had one of the good guys pointing out that they could tell the perp was lying because of his eyes. A small voice in the back of her head told Ruby that she could be imagining things, that the reaction could have just been competitive excitement, so she did the only thing she could think of: try to get more clues.

"Indeed." Weiss agreed, oblivious to Ruby's inner struggle, "With your strength and my utility, it should be easy for us to overcome any team composition that we end up facing."

"Why?" Ruby asked, making a show of leering at Emerald suspiciously, "What's got you so curious about our team all of a sudden?"

The only thing that could have made Ruby's act more perfect would have been a fake moustache, but the charade paid off all the same. Not only did her eyes fluctuate again, but Ruby's enhanced vision also zeroed in on the tiny hairs on Emerald's neck standing on end as if electrified. Something was up, and Ruby needed to figure out what. The only option she had left without outright accusing Emerald was tapping into her psionics and trying to sense the huntress's emotions.

Emerald raised an eyebrow at Ruby's ominous words and let out an amused snort, "Well somebody's getting needlessly protective. Just want to know who I might have the pleasure of squaring off against in the next round."

Something in Ruby's brain tingled as she tried to tap into Emerald's surface feelings, though she couldn't quite figure out what. It had been easier to read Blake during their fight, since Ruby already had a pretty clear idea of Blake's personality and how her emotions manifested. Trying to read a total stranger apparently came with its own set of challenges. Still, the back of her mind tickled, like an itch she couldn't quite scratch or the memories of a dream that she just barely couldn't remember. She'd have to ask Annette to help her practice this stuff sometime. While Ruby didn't know if the Major could actually read _thoughts_ , Annette's skills as an empath were generally accepted among XCOM's operatives.

"Ignore her." Yang said with an exaggerated eye roll, "My sister's taking this whole competition thing a bit too seriously."

Emerald grinned, evidently taking Ruby's antics as a joke, "Given that this tournament only rolls around once every two years, who can blame her? Well, good luck out there. Maybe you'll cross paths with my team at some point. I promise we'll put up a good fight. See you around!"

"Bye Emerald!" Ruby said as she waved. Better to drop the 'act' of being suspicious rather than make Emerald suspicious of her own suspicion. Or something. Once the green-haired huntress was out of sight, Ruby turned to face her teammates, "Did any of you find that conversation at all weird?"

Yang laughed, "You mean other than you? She was probably just scouting out the competition. I say let her, since it won't do much good if she does go up against us."

"Yeah, I guess. But it seemed to me like it was more than that? I can't really explain it." Ruby said, a tinge of uncertainty in her voice.

Blake raised an eyebrow, "Sounds like your spider senses are tingling."

"Maybe?" Ruby sighed, "But I'm not even sure if they are. I thought I felt something, but I couldn't really nail down exactly _what_. Annette makes this kinda stuff look easy." She half-mumbled.

Weiss put a gentle hand on her partner's shoulder. Unlike Cardin's antics from earlier, Ruby felt better at Weiss's touch, "Well your intuition has helped us out of more than one tight spot in the past, Ruby, so I'm not about to write it off because I didn't see anything. What do you think we should do?"

"That's just it, I don't know what we can do." Ruby said, "I know you and Yang are excited about advancing to the next round, and I don't want to take that away because of some stupid feeling I've got."

Yang shook her head, "You don't sound very authoritative, Captain. If you want to make the call, then make it. The rest of us are behind you one hundred percent."

Ruby looked at Yang, doubt in her eyes, "Seriously?"

"Of course." Blake said, "You kept us alive through eight months of hell. Not many people can brag about a team leader with that sort of qualification."

Ruby took a deep breath and nodded, "... Thanks, guys. Yeah let's quietly switch it up and not tell anyone for as long as possible. Maybe we can even get Ozpin's help and figure out a way to make it seem like Freezerburn is still on until the last minute, like one of you got injured and can't compete or something."

"Well, now's your chance," Yang said, looking over Ruby's shoulder, "Because it looks like he's coming this way."

Ruby looked up and saw her headmaster approaching, flanked by a stern Glynda, an impassive Bradford, and a bored Qrow. Her stomach churned as she thought of all the possible reasons why Ozpin wanted to talk to her, "… Oh boy."

* * *

Ruby fidgeted nervously as she rode the elevator to Ozpin's office with the rest of her team. Ozpin didn't seem nearly as upset as she imagined, considering Ruby literally put a gun to a classmate's chin only hours after her teammates demonstrated unrestrained aggression in the first round of the tournament. It didn't help when she saw Cardin as she walked with Ozpin, and the smarmy bully gave her the biggest shit-eating grin Ruby had ever seen. Then there was the fact that Bradford hadn't said a word during the entire walk and elevator ride. After nine months of flourishing under his watchful eye, Ruby almost felt worse at the prospect of disappointing Bradford than she did Ozpin.

The elevator finally stopped and the doors opened, allowing the party of eight to file out into the spacious office. Ozpin made for his seat, followed by both Glynda and Bradford. Qrow preferred to remain a casual observer, it seemed, since he hung back and picked a column by the elevator to lean against while RWBY approached Ozpin's table with the other three adults.

"I would offer you a seat," The headmaster started, "But it appears that I lack the furniture to do so. You would think that the headmaster of a school structured around teams of four would have at least that many guest seats in his office, and yet here we are…"

Glynda pinched the bridge of her nose in annoyance at the off-topic rambling, "Ozpin, please…"

"You're right, Glynda. My apologies." He took a sip from his mug, organized his thoughts, and tried again, "Ruby Rose, I would like to congratulate you and your team on emerging victorious from the first round of the tournament."

Ruby blinked, "I… thank you, sir."

"The coordination your team demonstrated on the field speaks very well to how tight-knit you have become. Some student teams don't achieve that degree of trust and cooperation until their final year at Beacon."

"Well, it's kind of a requirement if you want to survive in a war zone." Yang said, though she sounded pleased with the compliment all the same.

"That being said…"

Ruby groaned inwardly. She knew that the next part of the conversation was important, necessary even, but that didn't make it any easier for her to stomach.

"Your methods for victory seemed to have… ah…"

"Ruffled a few feathers?" Glynda suggested.

"Pissed off a couple of pompous bigwigs." Qrow clarified.

Ozpin nodded, sighing at Qrow's bluntness, "That is one way to put it, yes. And while aggression in combat isn't that unreasonable, there's also the matter of your run-in with Mister Winchester." The headmaster paused to swirl his mug and watch its contents slosh around for a moment, "To be frank, I'm hesitant to take anything that Cardin says at face value. So I'm going to ask you, Miss Rose: is he telling the truth about the encounter you two had earlier?"

"That I put a gun up to his head without provocation?" Ruby sighed, "He's not wrong."

"Except for the 'without provocation' part." Bradford guessed.

Ruby nodded, "He made his presence known by grabbing my shoulder."

The Central Officer winced, immediately understanding why Ruby reacted the way she did, "Yeah, that'll do it."

Ozpin's eyes adopted a hard look, and Ruby's stomach did another twist, "Do not mistake my casual tone for a lax reprimand, Ruby. While I am not a stranger to the mental stresses of war, the way your first match played out was rather… disappointing." The young team leader wilted under her headmaster's words. Even though he held no malice in his voice, Ruby could still feel the weight behind his words, "Though your team's technical skills cannot be questioned, there is more to a huntsman than the ability to kill effectively. I expect better from you because I know you are capable of better. The feats of strategy and coordination I have heard about from Bradford, that I saw in today's match, indicate that you and your team possess a certain degree of level-headedness."

He paused his speech with a sip from his mug, "A degree of level-headedness that was overshadowed by several bouts of emotion that took place both on and off of the arena floor."

"I know should have behaved better after I realized it was Cardin, sir." Ruby mumbled, "I'm not going to give you an excuse for my behavior."

Ozpin nodded, "Good, because I've never found excuses to help anyone. Self-introspection, on the other hand…" He pondered his next words carefully, "We all have memories and actions that we wish we could change, Ruby. The best we can do is learn from our mistakes and vow not to repeat them in the future. Given the delicate sociopolitical nature of this festival, I must impress upon you the importance of learning not to repeat this particular mistake."

At her headmaster's words, Major Vance's voice entered Ruby's mind, unbidden.

… _Honor Biggs, and the rest of the soldiers on the memorial wall, by moving forward and striving to learn from their sacrifice._

Ruby didn't know why that thought rose to the top above all others, given that getting pissed off at a class bully was entirely different from watching a soldier die under her command. Even so, the sentiment did feel similar enough. And if she took Ozpin's (unsettlingly ominous) words at face value, then the two situations were even more alike: learn and adapt, or fail and die. She nodded in agreement with Ozpin's advice, "I understand, sir."

The headmaster, satisfied with Ruby's answer, turned to Blake, "Miss Belladonna…?"

Blake, evidently just as uncomfortable as Ruby about the situation, didn't acknowledge the question until Yang gave her a slight nudge, "… Yes?"

Ozpin stared evenly at his student, "I won't insult you by giving you a pass due to your personal suffering from the war. I'm certain you're just as aware as the rest of your team regarding the importance of professionalism in our trade, and so I expect you will get to the root of what caused your outburst this afternoon and rectify it. To that end, I must ask: is everything alright?"

The hairs stood up on the back of Blake's neck. As much as she hated the thought of admitting weakness, Blake was aware that Ozpin genuinely needed to know her status, just as Bradford would need to know before giving her clearance to join a coalition op. Of course, the question remained hanging over her head. _Was_ everything alright? No, people who are alright don't mistake friendly opponents for bloodthirsty bugs, especially when they've had half a year to cope with the responsible trauma.

But could she say that to Ozpin? She knew him to be an understanding headmaster (although he seemed uncharacteristically tense about this festival), but how would he react to a student with PTSD? Did she really have PTSD? She never experienced episodes like this during the war, so why now? Maybe that's why it's called 'post' traumatic stress disorder. Would she ever be able to really fix herself? Too many questions, and everyone in the room wanted to hear an answer right now. But she didn't want to just open up this can of worms just yet. A better idea would be to take some time to really think about it and find a good way to carefully approach the problem.

"Yes." She answered, "I just got a bit… carried away in the fight."

Ozpin stared at Blake for several agonizing seconds before finally accepting her response, "Very well. In light of today's events, I trust that you and your team will work to resolve any necessary internal issues. But if you ever need to speak to someone in confidence, know that there are people who are more than willing to lend you an ear."

"From both Remnant _and_ Earth." Bradford reminded her. He didn't believe Blake's answer to be true, and he suspected that Ozpin didn't either, but he agreed with the headmaster that openly shaming Blake would do more harm than good. The best he could do was hope that Blake eventually decided to seek out someone like Vahlen before the issue reared its ugly head again.

For now, though, Ozpin seemed content with the resolution of their discussion, "Indeed. Well, I believe that wraps up our meeting here. I believe the next bout in the tournament is due to start soon, so shall we head back to the Colosseum and enjoy the rest of the day?"

Ruby noticed Glynda's eye twitch slightly, which led her to believe that Ozpin had things to do other than watching students fight. However, Ruby also had something on her mind that she wanted to bring up while she still had Ozpin and Bradford in the same room, "Actually… I'd like to talk about something else before we leave."

"Oh?"

Did she really want to do this? Criminal accusations aren't taken lightly, and it would look _really_ bad if Emerald's intentions really were as simple as scouting the competition. Still, she couldn't shake the feeling she got when Emerald talked to her team about advancement. She needed to at least let Ozpin be aware that it sorta-maybe-possibly-might be an issue.

"Are you familiar with a student in the tournament named Emerald, sir?"

Ozpin made a few keystrokes on his scroll, glanced at the result for a moment, then nodded, "Emerald Sustrai?"

"Probably." Ruby answered, "Dark complexion, green hair… yup, that's her." She confirmed when Ozpin slid his scroll across the table displaying Emerald's student profile.

"What of her?"

Now came the tricky part, "I'm not quite sure, to be honest, but she stopped by to chat with our team shortly before you arrived. The conversation was pretty normal, I guess, but… I dunno… I just got some bad vibes from her."

"These 'bad vibes' wouldn't be similar to the kind that most Beacon freshmen feel around our own mister Winchester, would they?" Glynda asked, evidently annoyed that Ruby felt the need to bring up the news of a bully to Ozpin's attention.

Ruby shook her head, "No, miss Goodwitch. It's not really easy to explain, but-" She cut herself off when she saw Bradford raising his eyebrow and tapping his forehead. She nodded.

"-I've just got a feeling." She finished, fully aware of how lame that sounded.

Ozpin, however, seemed to get the gist of her statement, "I can't arrest someone on 'just a feeling,' Ruby. I'm certain you know that."

"I do." Ruby answered, "Which is why I was hesitant to bring it up."

Bradford spoke up, "At the same time, I've come to trust Ruby's intuition. While we can't do anything direct, I was already considering the development of a rotation of operatives to help maintain a quiet presence in Vale. I don't see any harm in asking them to keep an eye out if they encounter this Sustrai. And if the more information _does_ come to light that provides credibility for Captain Rose's concerns, I think I have several individuals who may be uniquely suited to helping us resolve this matter. Discretely."

Ruby smiled inwardly at Bradford's use of her rank. She noticed that he sometimes did that when he felt the need to remind people of Ruby's professional accomplishments. While she certainly didn't feel very accomplished after a messy first round, it felt good to know that Bradford still had had her back. She just needed to prove that she deserved it.

"I think that is a good course of action." Ozpin agreed, "The information we have at this juncture does not allows us to consider more direct options, but at least we can keep our eyes open for anything out of the ordinary."

Ruby breathed a small sigh of relief. For the second time today, a potentially volatile conversation went better than expected.

* * *

Jaune sat on the edge of the roof and stared out at the small city of activity known as Beacon. While most people were enjoying the festivities at the fairgrounds or on the Colosseum proper, he still saw students wandering the grounds of the school with friends or giving family a tour of their home for the last year or two. He looked at the mighty tower that stood above everything else, the green-lit sentinel that always served as a backdrop for his training sessions with Pyrrha. He closed his eyes and imagined the clashing of steel, the pounding of footsteps as he and his partner fell into the rhythm of sparring. Maybe after things settled down, they could go back to that nightly routine. Jaune had no misconceptions about his current skill level: XCOM may have given him the confidence he needed to succeed, but he could still learn _plenty_ from the four-time Mistrali champion that he called his partner.

"Thought I'd find you up here."

Speak of the devil (angel, more like). Jaune glanced over his shoulder and watched Pyrrha walk up to take a seat next to him, "Beagle said you mentioned something about a roof. Didn't take long to figure out what you meant."

"Is he still getting dragged around campus by Nora?" Jaune asked with amusement.

"Dragged around? He's loving it." Pyrrha laughed, "One of the perks of passing off as Nora and Ren's adoptive father is that Nora has to do what he says."

Jaune shrugged, "According to Ren, she follows his orders anyway. Chain of command and all that. Besides, I think he likes her chaotic personality, so he probably only reins it in when he really needs to."

"What about you? Felt the need to slip away and be alone for a bit?" She asked.

"Just… reminiscing, I guess." He looked out over the campus again, "We spent a lot of time up here, didn't we?"

Pyrrha nodded, "We did. And hopefully, we'll be able to spend a lot more time up here before we graduate."

"Yeah, when things settle down." Jaune said, vocalizing his earlier musings.

The two sat in comfortable silence, his hand on top of hers, as they watched the world play out below them. The sounds of the festival drifted in from the distance while the Colosseum loomed in the sky. For the moment, Jaune felt comfortable… happy. He was back on Remnant, his team still in one piece, just in time for the world to celebrate prosperity and unity in the face of all the darkness and uncertainty in the world. He wasn't naive, and he knew that trouble would always be just around the corner, but even evil had to take a break every now and then, right?

"How long do you think this will last?" He asked.

"Hopefully long enough for us to enjoy it." Pyrrha answered, catching his meaning, "Then again, we're huntsmen. It's our job to keep the peace so _others_ can enjoy it."

"D'you think things'll get bad? Like Earth invasion bad?"

Pyrrha shuddered, "Hopefully nothing ever gets as bad as the that, but… our history has shown that it's possible. More recently, I doubt you've forgotten about the Breach, even after nine months on Earth. From what Ruby and her friends told us, that wasn't an isolated incident, either. Torchwick's been causing trouble for a while now, and we don't really know the extent of his conniving actions. I don't know if anything has happened for the last two weeks, but I'm certain he's got people on the outside while Atlas pats itself on the back for locking up the criminal 'mastermind' behind that horrific event."

A yell of " _Nora, get back here!_ " from down below drew their attention, and the two partners watched Beagle chase after a gleeful Nora, his Christmas aviators seated firmly on her face. Despite his impressive fitness as an XCOM operative (and as a Rocketeer to boot), he couldn't match Nora's Aura-enhanced athletics.

"Well, at least we've got those guys now." Jaune commented as Nora and Beagle ran rings around the huntsman statue in the center of Beacon's courtyard.

Pyrrha nodded, "I don't think we should lean on them too much for help, given that Earth still has its own set of problems that deserves XCOM's attention, but it looks like Bradford is keen on thanking us for our service in the war."

"Man, I wonder what's gonna happen if people on Earth find out about Remnant, or vice versa. Hopefully nobody panics."

"I doubt that Remnant is as tight of a secret as we think." Pyrrha mused, "There were a _lot_ of people at XCOM, I'm sure some of them tipped off their governments about us. Whether the politicians believe the stories however…? I'm not sure. But I trust Bradford and Ozpin, and I think keeping things quiet for now is the right move."

Down below, Nora took off Beagle's glasses and threw them over his head. A look of betrayal crossed the Captain's face when he turned around to see Ren rocking his sweet shades. Pyrrha leaned her head onto Jaune's shoulder while they continued to watch the playful game of keep away unfold between their teammates and superior officer. Jaune decided that, so long as things were quiet, he better enjoy the simpler things in life.

For all he knew, the world could go to hell in a handbasket tomorrow.

* * *

Far from Vale, across mountains, valleys, seas, and tundra… far from any semblance of man-made structures or settlements… the landscape surrounding a very specific patch of dirt looked vastly different from anything witnessed by mankind. Neither civilian nor huntsman had ever seen the twisted terrain of this particular valley, warped over the years by… _something_. Whether it was Dust, Grimm, or merely geological activity, one thing was clear: the land looked damaged. Poisoned. Rock formations jutted out at odd angles, scarred by massive crystals breaking free from their backs. A noxious mist hung heavily in the air, with neither a gentle breeze nor a heavy wind blowing through the region to clear it away. No flora grew in this fetid wasteland, except for several disturbing strains of weeds and vines that looked more like a twisted mockery of nature than anything that could be seen elsewhere on Remnant. No fauna remained except for those long dead, with the fur, meat, and other viscera eaten away for centuries by the toxic air so that the bones could be bleached by the sun as it struggled to breach the smog.

In this land, the only movement came in the form of Grimm. Not only were such foul creatures able to survive in this land of death and decay, but they thrived here. Goliaths and Boarbatusks wandered the valley floor while Nevermore and Griffons lazily circled overhead and Beowolves sat atop the jagged buttes. Amorphous black matter slithered like some sort of living sludge, occasionally forming itself into a more recognizable form if it somehow found enough soul matter to latch onto. The density of the Grimm, coupled with the sheer inhospitality of the environment, likely made this hell hole the absolute last place on Remnant that any human would ever want to visit.

And yet, atop one of scarred mesas stood a woman looking up into the sky. White hair pulled into a tight, ornate bun adorned with ribbons deep red in color framed an impossibly pale white face. Two eyes, blood red like the Grimm below, stared at the shattered moon hanging above the valley's thick haze. Black lines, seared into her skin like ornate tattoos, snaked along her limbs in complex designs that only added to the eldritch vibe radiating from this woman. Indeed, she projected an aura of unholy strength: the primordial slurry of Grimm essence pooled around her feet and rose like a fine mist as if it were some arcane power for her to command.

She closed her eyes and breathed deeply. Something felt different. For a minute, she couldn't quite figure what change occurred, but the subtle undercurrents in her senses left her without a shadow of a doubt. Her ashen cloak pulled tight against her frame, and she projected her senses out further, trying to deduce what was tickling the back of her brain. It didn't take long before she felt _it_ , and a thin smile spread across her lips.

"My my…" She breathed, eyes open once more as the Grimm essence swirled before her, "Welcome, my brother. It's been a long time in the making, but we are so excited to have you -and her- finally with us once more."

The agitated mist continued to dance around the woman until it finally formed itself not into Grimm, but spectral figures… wraiths that silently floated before her. Her smile cracked into a wide grin, and she swept her arms open into a wide gesture.

"You're just in time for the show to begin."

* * *

A/N: Welp. That just happened. As always, please let me know your thoughts on the chapter. I'm especially keen on hearing opinions regarding characterization, since I'm still spending a lot of time trying to get those right. As an example, I originally had a far whinier persona for Cardin before my editor pointed out that there were more interesting options for his personality.


	6. Like Clockwork

A/N: So I woke up this morning to a review for RWBY Within. Apparently the boiler-plate warning I added to my prologue about Aura isn't enough to stop people a year after the fact from telling me why my decision was so terrible. Fun stuff I tell you! But not nearly as fun as JNPR vs. BRNZ. Which is what you're getting with this chapter.

* * *

"C'mooooon JNPR!" Yang cheered. Ordinarily, she would be doing so from a spectator seat in the stadium, but her uncle preferred the relative solitude of Vale's various hole-in-the-wall bars. Since she and Ruby wanted to hang out with Qrow, Team RWBY found themselves watching their friends gear up for combat from the comfort of the Crow's Nest along with Bradford and Qrow. Much to the team's disappointment, Glynda succeeded in convincing Ozpin that he had more important matters to attend to, and so the headmaster was regrettably absent from their little tournament party.

"Isn't there one of these on the Colosseum?" Weiss asked.

"Yeah, but the place was full of noisy students thinking they're hot shit and know how to down a row of shots. Hey barkeep." Qrow called to the gentleman behind the counter, "Double shot of whiskey. On the rocks."

The bartender nodded and glanced at Bradford, "Anything for you, sir?"

Bradford nodded, "Gin and tonic."

"And a Tequila Sunrise for me, please!" All eyes turned to Ruby, who cheerfully swung her legs on her barstool while she grinned at the bartender. A moment of silence as Qrow looked incredulously at his niece before glancing at Bradford with a raised eyebrow. The man behind the counter coughed politely before offering Ruby a smile.

"May I see some identification, miss…?"

"Rose." Bradford answered, "And there's no way you don't recognize her from that fantastic match earlier today. She led her team to a complete shut out in the first round."

"I… remember." The bartender said awkwardly, "But that doesn't change the fact that I still need to see some… ah… evidence of her age."

Bradford saw a gleam in Qrow's eye as the older huntsman asked the bartender, "You trying to tell me that a huntress who wields a high impact velocity sniper rifle with enough skill and precision to snipe a moving target out of the air isn't mature enough for a little alcohol?"

The gentleman rubbed the back of his head and avoided eye contact with the older huntsman, "I, uh… well, I could lose my job, if…"

"If someone rats you out." Qrow pressed, "Do you think anyone here is going to rat you out?"

Indeed, the bar was devoid of any patrons other than the RWBY party. When the bartender still looked nervous, Qrow changed tactics, "Tell you what. The little rugrats here," he waved a hand at RWBY, "Would like to have some soda. Given that my associate and I intend to celebrate RWBY's victory in the first round of the tournament, we would like to order a few more drinks as well."

He glanced at Ruby and winked, "I feel like having a Tequila Sunrise to go along with my whiskey. But I can't think of what else I would like, or what I should order for the good Captain." He looked over at Ruby's teammates, "Any suggestions?"

"A glass of red wine." Weiss said, looking at the bottles on the wall, "I think you'd really appreciate the Mistrali Port, to be honest."

"Atlas Mule for Bradford!" Yang added.

"Pale ale to round out the Captain's order." Blake said, "He doesn't care what kind."

The bartender slumped his shoulders and gave an affirmative nod before turning around to prepare the drinks. With the man's back turned, Qrow flashed a grin at Ruby and Yang, "My little kiddos, growin' up so fast."

Yang shrugged nonchalantly, "What can I say? You pick up a thing or two after fighting in a war."

Their attention was interrupted by Port commentating on the television screen, " _The stage is set! The combatants are ready! Let's get this show on the road!_ "

* * *

" _Ready? Begin!_ "

Without a word, Jaune dropped to his knee and raised his shield. Behind him and to his left, Pyrrha raised hers and held Miló steady in one of the small notches on the shield's rim. Nora folded Magnhild into its launcher form and kneeled to Jaune's right, with Ren standing right behind her. The ranged fighters of JNPR opened fire as one while their leader kept his eyes on their approaching foes and assessed their combat strategy. The sniper, predictably, turned tail and ran for the safety of the forest biome's treeline. The other three sacrificed a portion of their Aura to charge through JNPR's fusillade and close to melee range. The one with some sort of saw-blade weapon flung his armaments as an opening strike, but Jaune's bulwark deflected the blow easily.

Given the danger presented by the sniper, May, Jaune was tempted to activate his semblance so he could better shield his allies. However, nobody outside of Ozpin and XCOM knew of the dramatic rise in his fighting prowess, and that was an advantage worth saving until he really needed it. Similarly, Pyrrha chose to forgo the use of her Christmas gift. She felt that the high-tech visor would not only give her an unfair advantage, but raise questions about where she acquired it. Either way, the immediate threat of the three melee fighters brought Jaune's focus back to the present.

"Flight of the Valkyrie is a go."

Ren nodded, flipped a toggle on StormFlower, touched his machine pistols to Nora's shoulders, and discharged their high-voltage content into his partner. With lightning surging through her veins, Nora leapt over Jaune's crouched body. Magnhild form-shifted into hammer during her descent, and Nora sent a shockwave of force towards her victims as she smashed her weapon into the tiles of the arena. Shattered fragments of the floor flew like shrapnel towards the men of BRNZ who had no choice but to halt their dash and shield themselves from the mighty blow.

Nora's explosive distraction gave her team the opportunity to advance and regroup with the hammer maiden. A crack rang out from the trees, and Ren cried out as the force of the dust round striking his shoulder almost caught him off-balance.

"Hammertime, smoke!" Jaune commanded. Either way, Nora cycled the grenades in her hammer to lock in the one she wanted. She smashed the ground and released a cloud of pink smoke as the primed grenade detonated, effectively creating a visual barrier between the two teams.

" _A clever play by miss Valkyrie!_ " Oobleck exclaimed, " _Without the ability to identify friend from foe within the defensive haze, Team JNPR has rendered BRNZ's sniper useless!_ "

The enemy's main force finally recovered from Nora's blast in time to see a high-speed disc race out from the concealing smoke and hit the closest huntsman, Roy, square in the face. Pyrrha leapt from cover to snatch Akouo out of the air, followed by a quick jump kick that sent the dazed hunter reeling into Nora's cloud.

"Ren, deal with him. Nora, with me."

Jaune leapt out of the smoke to join his partner against the other two melee fighters. Shield at the ready, he plowed into the one wielding a baton while Nora charged out of her first cloud before popping a second behind the growing melee.

"Pyrrha," Jaune said while blocking Nolan's electrified rod, "Go hunt down the sniper."

"Right." Pyrrha took a quick swipe at the Brawnz to throw him off-balance and give Nora a momentary advantage, then dashed off into the woods to engage the last target.

" _Now_ this _is a brawl!_ " Professor Port boomed, " _Each huntsman and huntress, locked in glorious combat with one another. Let's see who comes out of the fray in one piece!_ "

Jaune and Nora displayed incredible coordination despite merely being teammates and not partners. While the one used his defensive prowess to deflect critical blows, the other capitalized on the openings Jaune created to get in a solid swing to knock the enemy off-balance and allow the duo to focus on the other opponent. With Jaune's shield wall and Nora's explosive power, the two huntsmen effectively juggled their opponents, seamlessly switching from one to the other as the situation demanded it. Once or twice, a clawed knuckle made its way past Jaune's defenses, but the team leader didn't even flinch before swinging his shield around to smack his opponent across the face. Nolan made the mistake of trying to electrocute Nora once.

Once.

Both Brawnz and Jaune momentarily stopped their scuffle to watch as Nolan looked on with confusion and then fear when his shock stick seemed to only cause an evil grin to spread across Nora's face. He dodged Magnhild's first mighty blow, but didn't expect Nora's improved dexterity and found himself unable to evade the followup smash that flung him into the forest. The sounds of rifle shots echoing through the trees indicated the sniper duel playing out between Pyrrha and her target. The dense foliage prevented Jaune from visually confirming the state of the tree battle, though a quick glance at the scoreboard showed that Pyrrha's Aura still remained in the 'healthy' region. If things turned bad, he could dispatch Nora to provide his partner with some destructive support.

Nora's first smoke cloud slowly dissipated, revealing Roy's desperate battle against Ren. With experience from XCOM in fighting under low-visibility conditions, Ren capitalized on his advantage by unleashing a relentless assault against the saw blade huntsman, whittling down Roy's strength as much as possible before the two once again found themselves on equal footing. Every time Ren sensed his target trying to escape from the cloud, he would reposition himself or grapple with the huntsman and throw him back into the center of the smoke's radius. To Roy's credit, Ren did sport several nicks and cuts on his outfit where the saw blades managed to score a solid hit. And now that his Aura level put Roy at risk for elimination, he found his second wind and redoubled his efforts to fight back against Ren. Jaune, of course, found this to be unacceptable.

"Nora, Arc Launcher."

Jaune positioned his shield and braced for impact. When Brawnz ducked under Nora's latest swing, she continued to follow through with the stroke and smashed her hammer into her team leader.

" _A very interesting strategy._ " Oobleck commented, " _Generally speaking, combatants in a team match try to hit targets from the opposing side rather than their own allies._ "

* * *

"I'm in agreement with Barty." Qrow mused, "I mean, Tai and I came up with some pretty crazy stunts back in our day, but that looked downright painful."

"You've never seen Jaune fight before." Yang explained, "Getting flung around the battlefield is kind of his thing."

"He's certainly hard-headed enough to handle it." Blake agreed, taking another sip of her beer, "Notice how the hit barely put a dent in his Aura."

The bartender had completely given up at this point and busied himself with cleaning tables so he wouldn't have to acknowledge the underage drinking taking place in the back. Qrow watched Ruby finish her tequila and asked, "So how long have you guys been drinking? Your father always assumed that my… habits would be what got you hooked on the sauce."

' _And sparked more than one heated argument between the two of us._ ' Qrow thought, though he had no intention of mentioning that to either of his nieces.

"Seven months? Eight months?" Yang guessed, looking at her teammates for confirmation.

"Six and a half." Weiss corrected, "Though I wouldn't say we're addicted to it. Social drinking was part of the atmosphere of camaraderie at XCOM. Given our status within the organization, it became a logical progression to start enjoying downtime with the operatives in the lounge."

Qrow cocked an eyebrow, "A lounge? Sounds like you had a fancy pantsy war on your hands."

"Mental health of our operatives is just as important as knowing how to shoot a gun." Bradford said, "We didn't have an amusement park on base, but space for a bar and other recreational activities served to keep the soldiers in good spirits."

The older huntsman laughed, "Ironwood could learn a thing or two from you. You'd think he was _allergic_ to a good time from the way he acts."

Bradford finished the rest of his drink and stood up from the bar, "If you don't mind, I think I'm going to catch a shuttle to the stadium so I can congratulate JNPR in person on their win. Not sure how long it'll take for them to wrap things up, so I should probably head out now."

"Oh! Tell them to meet us down at the fairgrounds after!" Ruby said, "We haven't had a chance to really explore all the booths yet, and I haven't seen Beagle in forever!"

"It's been about a day and a half, Ruby." Blake said, eyes still on the Vytal match.

"A _really long_ day and a half!"

Bradford shook his head and left the bar.

* * *

While he had to admit that he preferred Pyrrha's 'Arc Thrower' over Nora's 'Arc Launcher,' Jaune's ride on the Fastball Express served its purpose. Like a human missile, he slammed into the other huntsman and the two of them went tumbling. When the dust settled, Jaune looked over to see his target splayed out on the ground and struggling to get up. Ren loomed over him, and the killer look in his eye softened into one of mild empathy. He offered a hand to the huntsman, who looked confused for a brief moment before accepting the help and getting to his feet.

"All good?" Ren asked.

Roy nodded, "All good."

" _Would you look at that fine display of sportsmanship!_ " Port exclaimed, " _Even in a high stakes match like this, there is still room for empathy between combatants on the battlefield!_ "

Jaune winced inwardly as he thought about how Ruby must feel hearing Port talk about empathy.

" _Even so, Roy Stallion is the first casualty of the match!_ " Oobleck added, " _With the tables now tipped in Team JNPR's favor, can BRNZ still turn things around?_ "

The answer, it turned out, was 'They can't.' After Jaune eliminated the saw blade huntsman, he dashed off for the woods while Ren regrouped with Nora to finish off Brawnz. Team 'Flower Power' eliminated their targets with relative ease after Ren supercharged his partner. Jaune, on the other hand, struggled to locate Pyrrha. He noticed that the gunfire ceased around the time he helped Ren knock out Roy, and now he realized that he didn't actually know how to locate his partner or her target. Before he could spend too much time searching for his partner, however, Nolan leapt down from the foliage and engaged Jaune. An idea occurred to the team leader

"Pyrrha?" He called out, trying to sound as desperate possible, "Pyrrha, where are you? I don't know how long I can hold out against this guy!"

Nolan raised an eyebrow, as his opponent's words clearly weren't matching up with his performance. He realized too late, however, that the cry for help was intended to reach May rather than Pyrrha. It didn't take very long before the two combatants heard the crack of a rifle from above. Jaune gasped as the shot connected with the base of his skull and sent him careening into the dirt. The gambit, however, paid off when he heard a second rifle shot followed by a clang and a yelp. Jaune staggered to his feet in time to see a red and white blur streak past him followed by the familiar crimson of his partner.

"Thanks for the assist!" Pyrrha shouted cheerfully as she passed by, returning the favor by tripping Nolan before he could send a wave of volts surging through Jaune's ironclad body.

"Yeah…" Jaune mumbled, rolling to his feet and preparing to re-engage with his opponent, "Don't mention it."

The stadium buzzer blared a moment later, marking the elimination of a combatant.

" _With May Zedong out of her comfort zone, it doesn't take long for four-time Mistral Champion Pyrrha Nikos to finish their duel with style!_ " Port shouted.

Nolan looked at Jaune and shrugged, "Welp, I guess this is just sparring practice for me at this point."

"Glass half full kinda guy, huh?" Jaune grinned, "I like you."

The two huntsmen brandished their weapons before charging at each other. Jaune gritted his teeth as the voltage from Nolan's stun baton traveled through his shield and electrified his arm. With blocking no longer an option, Jaune did his best to channel Pyrrha's agility training. He thanked his lucky stars that his partner had the foresight to believe that blocking wouldn't be the best solution for every situation. Even though Jaune doubted he'd ever be quite as acrobatic as Pyrrha, he learned enough to duck around Nolan's weapon with relative ease.

After spending twenty seconds gauging Nolan's skill and learning his attack patterns, Jaune launched his own counteroffensive. Like a tidal wave of steel, Crocea Mors crashed down upon its victim. Where Ren achieved victory through Death by a Thousand Cuts and Pyrrha capitalized on her foe's exposed weaknesses, Jaune used his superior endurance to win through an inexorable advance. Pyrrha taught him to exercise caution at the start of a fight so that he wouldn't throw himself into an unknown and potentially dangerous situation. Now that he knew the extent of his foe's strength, Jaune struck with conviction.

Anytime Nolan raised his baton in an effort to strike back, Jaune knocked it aside with Crocea Mors. Attacks of opportunity presented themselves as Nolan's strength slowly waned during the melee, and Jaune exploited them without mercy. Once or twice, Jaune allowed himself to get struck with the stun baton, and he fought through the electric shock to deliver a counterattack to Nolan's unprotected midsection.

"Damn, dude," Nolan said through ragged breaths, "How are you this beastly?"

Jaune delivered a shield bash to Nolan's shoulder and followed up with a slash to his legs.

"Practice, and a talented teacher or two." He answered, "And when I got tired of practicing, they motivated me to practice some more."

The real answer, Jaune knew, was confidence. Knowing that he had the ability to strike true and the strength to make his opponent respect his power mattered far more than practice alone. He resumed his assault and used Nolan's fatigue to try wrapping things up quickly. After another fifteen seconds of slashing, ducking, and bashing, Nolan fell to his back and the stadium's buzzer sounded for the fourth time.

" _And with that, Team JNPR advances to the next round!_ "

* * *

Bradford waited by the docks on Amity Stadium, trying to catch a glimpse of JNPR. He managed to watch the end of their match on the transport shuttle's monitor screen about five minutes ago, and figured that they'd need some time to debrief and decompress in whatever locker room the stadium provided for its competitors. While he waited, Bradford let his eyes wander around the stadium's external structure as his thoughts turned to security once more. He watched the occasional pair of Atlesian Knights march by and idly counted the number of huntsmen (both student and professional) wandering around the hallways. The four kingdoms certainly had enough personnel present to both act as a deterrent against an attack and to provide a satisfactory emergency response against a calamity.

At the same time, any intelligent foe would recognize the folly of a direct assault under these conditions. Espionage and subterfuge, as EXALT demonstrated, could be just as crippling as an alpha strike. Atlas could deploy all the Knights and Paladins in their arsenal, and they would do nothing to stop a well-trained spy from infiltrating and crippling Ironwood's security from the inside. Bradford didn't know if Ironwood had any counter-espionage contingencies in place, though he didn't expect the General to tell him if he did.

Bradford's thoughts were interrupted by the arrival of JNPR. He spotted Pyrrha first, her crimson mane easily sticking out among the crowds wandering the lower floor of the building. With her was the rest of JNPR, as well as the recognizable faces of Captain Beagle and Sergeant MacAuley. As Bradford made his way towards the group, he caught Jaune's eye and the young leader grinned at him. The Central Officer waded past throngs of people milling about before coming to a halt in front of his friends. Beagle and MacAuley snapped a salute, and Bradford responded in kind before returning his attention to the victorious huntsmen.

"Nice work out there, Lieutenant."

Jaune smiled, "Everything by the numbers, sir. Good to see you finally made it."

"Yeah, well… Shen was starting to ride my ass about working too hard," Bradford laughed, "Figured it'd be good to watch you guys fight in your natural element. Van Doorn's holding down the fort while I'm gone."

"Well it's nice to see you in higher spirits, sir." Pyrrha said, "We all noticed how stressed you've looked for the last month."

Bradford groaned, "Seriously?"

"Seriously." Beagle answered.

Ren nodded in agreement with the Captain, "Your speech pattern, body language, and even your sleep schedule were all dead giveaways."

MacAuley gave Ren a curious glance, "That, uh… that sounds like borderline stalking, buddy."

"I'm just very observant." Ren defended, "And once I pointed it out, the others started to see it, too."

Bradford knew he shouldn't be surprised: out of all his guests from Remnant, Ren had a way with his senses. He half-expected the hunter to say that he _felt_ Bradford's stress before seeing it, given his affinity for meditation and mysticism. Either way, the kid was spot on with his assessment, so Bradford couldn't really knock Ren's methods.

"Well you'll be pleased to know that I'm feeling much better. I saw both your fight and RWBY's, and it's almost as if the stress just melted away once I got here."

"Jesus, boss," Beagle laughed, "It sounds like you're describing a visit to a luxury spa."

"I guess a festival dedicated to international peace will do that for you." Jaune said.

Peace. With a single word, Bradford's mind instantly snapped back to his conversation with Ozpin and his musings from a few minutes ago. He tuned out Nora's bubbly chatter (with Beagle's supplementary pantomimes) and instead scanned his surroundings. Any one of these visitors could be a saboteur in disguise, blending in with the crowd and slipping away without anyone noticing. He didn't know what the restricted sections of the Colosseum contained, but _something_ had to keep this giant hunk of steel floating. Something, he suspected, that could easily be manipulated or damaged to cause some serious mayhem.

"And so then I- … Brad?" Nora waved a hand in front of Bradford's face, "Braaaaaaad?"

Bradford blinked, "Hmm? Oh, sorry. My mind slipped for a moment."

"Seems like you're not quite as stress-free as you thought." Ren observed.

While it didn't feel anywhere as crippling as the burden he'd been carrying for the past month, Bradford had to once again agree with Ren, "Guess not."

Beagle and MacAuley shared a knowing look before the Captain gave Bradford a wry smile, "Apparently when you've spent the better part of two years running a military operation against an unknown enemy, it's not easy to turn off that part of your brain."

"The stadium?" Ren guessed.

Bradford looked around. He didn't exactly want to have a conversation about... sensitive information in earshot of the public. Then again, all of the people walking by them through Amity were conversing loudly with one another and generating a considerable amount of ambient noise while paying the operatives no mind. Unless somebody was specifically focused on Bradford's group and trying to listen to their conversation, nobody could reasonably hear them. Even so, he lowered his voice as he nodded in response to Ren's statement, "The stadium."

Pyrrha nervously rubbed her arm, uncomfortable with the implications of Bradford's concern. Thankfully, she also caught Bradford's reasoning for dropping his voice and likewise reduced her volume, "Yeah… that's actually crossed my mind as well. Anyone that wants to seriously destabilize peace between the kingdoms _and_ bring an entire horde of Grimm down on Vale can do so by destroying Amity."

"Who would want to do that, though?" Nora asked. Amidst the dark turn their conversation had taken, Bradford couldn't help but smile slightly at the... loudness of Nora as she pulled out a massive cookie from her pack and start chowing down on it, "Not the White Fang, right? They want equality, and they can't really get that if everyone's getting eaten by Grimm."

"Death is the ultimate equalizer." Ren pointed out, giving his partner a pointed jab in an effort to keep her voice down.

"Nora's right, though. Even if the White Fang wanted to send a message, it would be impossible to avoid killing a lot of their fellow faunus in the process." Jaune said, "I mean, I can't really put myself in their place and try to think like them, but it doesn't make sense."

Bradford raised an eyebrow, "Why was EXALT, an organization of humans, hellbent on sabotaging humanity's last line of defense against an alien invasion?"

"Fair point." Jaune admitted.

MacAuley glanced around with an air of someone about to get into mischief, "Well hey… if you're so concerned about security, aren't you supposed to be the Captain of the Valean Recon Division, boss?"

"I suppose I am..." Bradford slowly answered, a grin spreading across his face as he caught on to the Irishman's point, "Matter of fact, I've been planning to start deploying personnel around Vale to collect intel we can use if we find ourselves in the middle of some… _unfortunate_ events."

Beagle glanced at JNPR, then back at the Central Officer, "I dunno about you, but I'd feel better knowing I can count on the locals to help assess security vulnerabilities, establish deployment zones, and develop a contingency plan or two."

"Or five." Bradford corrected. He turned his focus to the team of huntsmen, who stood at attention and stared at him with silent anticipation, "Thoughts? We'd love to have you on-board for a bit of data collection and recon, but the choice is, as always, up to you."

Nora grinned, "Sir, yes sir."

Bradford chuckled as Beagle ruffled her hair with a 'that's my girl' that earned him a light punch to the ribs, "Excellent. It will have to wait, however: we have some friends waiting to greet the latest victors of the tournament at the fairgrounds. We best not keep them waiting."

* * *

"Heeeeeeey! You guys made it!" Ruby cheerfully waved when she caught sight of JNPR and Bradford. The rest of her team looked up, and Jaune noticed they were chatting with each other over some sort of pastry dessert.

"Bradford told us you guys wanted to have a celebratory meet up at the fairgrounds, but I didn't expect you to get tired of waiting for us." Jaune said, amused.

Ruby eyes grew wide, then guilty, "Ummm, yeah… there was a long line for the funnel cakes, you see, and we wanted to make sure we had one ready to eat before you showed up. But then the line moved faster than expected, and there was this deliciously warm cake sitting in front of us, and we thought it would be a shame if it grew cold because we waited, so…"

"That's alright." Nora said cheerfully, though her eyes were locked on the cake, "I can finish that one while you get a second one for everyone else!"

Ruby looked over at the rest of her team, prompting Blake and Yang to look at Weiss, which in turn forced a sigh out of Ruby's partner, "Don't look at me. I had a rather… interesting conversation with my father a few hours ago. Suffice to say that my lien card won't be as effective as it used to be."

"I, uh… well, then." Ruby chuckled to fill the awkward void left after Weiss's announcement. She made a mental note to talk to Weiss about it later, "Maybe we could just share-?"

"NOPE." Nora shouted as she finished inching her way towards the table with her prize. In one fell swoop, she leapt over the table, grabbed, the cake, and dropped into a run as she landed.

" _Dammit Nora!_ " Beagle shouted as he chased after the confectionery criminal. Pyrrha shook her head in amusement as she watched her teammate lead the Captain on a merry chase around the fairgrounds.

"Shall I get us a replacement?"

Jaune shook his head, "Nah. I'd rather not waste time trying to get another dessert when we could be enjoying ourselves as a group."

"Smart man." Bradford commented. After glancing at the line for funnel cakes, he found it hard to believe that Ruby got through so quickly the first time. Besides, the fairgrounds held lots of other stalls that likely had food just as delicious as the funnel cake. RWBY agreed with Jaune's sentiment and the group began to wander around the open spaces of the temporary town.

"So where's your uncle, Ruby?" Bradford asked, noting a distinct lack of the grizzled, caped huntsman.

"Said something about catching up with an old friend." Yang said, rolling her eyes, "I'm not sure if he was referring to a shot glass, or the barmaid serving it."

Bradford chuckled, "You weren't kidding about your uncle drinking like a fish, were you?"

Yang shook her head, "Nope."

"Well, congratulations on your win." Ruby said, turning the conversation back to JNPR (sans Nora), "You guys looked awesome out there."

"Well duh." MacAuley grinned, "Jaune's a kickass leader. What did you expect?"

"Nothing less than what we saw." Blake answered, eyes and ears still tracking Beagle and Nora's game of tag, "You carried yourselves with the grace and poise of a well-oiled machine. Jaune's final melee was especially impressive."

Jaune felt his cheeks heat up at the compliment. He'd mentally assigned himself to the role of 'team support' for so long, it felt good to receive an acknowledgment of his dueling skills from one so skilled in the art, "Thanks, Blake. I gotta admit, it's to win a fight for the first time in… well… ever."

"You've been winning fights for months on Earth." Bradford reminded him, "But I get your meaning."

Pyrrha nodded, "It was quite enjoyable to watch, Jaune. The look of determination on your face as you steadily wore down Nolan's defences is something you'd normally find on veteran huntsmen. You've come a long way since starting at Beacon."

The group continued to mosey among the stalls, though they gradually started to drift as the varying refreshments or distractions caught the eye of certain members. MacAuley peeled off when he spotted a drink shack and Pyrrha left to grab some kebabs for herself and Jaune. When several more minutes passed with no sign of Beagle or Nora, Ren agreed to go find them and figure out what happened. Yang offered to go with Blake when she noticed her partner eyeing a fish market stall, and Bradford had to bite his tongue to avoid saying something he was _certain_ would be offensive.

The remaining huntsmen opted to grab a table with Bradford and wait for the group to reconvene. The sounds of giggling children with their parents not far behind drifted through the Central Officer's ears along with the sizzling of fresh food on frying pans and the casual chatter of countless festival goers spending time with their friends. It reminded him of what a day on the town should sound like, rather than the screams and gunfire he'd grown to become familiar with.

As he took in the sights that supplemented the sounds of the fair, Bradford saw smiling faces and vibrant colors. It almost made him feel foolish for worrying about security. What kind of person would want to disrupt this? Certainly nobody who had a soul capable of compassion. Unless the aliens had somehow found their way to Remnant, he wondered who Ozpin seemed to be concerned about. Most likely, the old man feared the possibility of an accident causing widespread panic. After seeing RWBY's first match, he wondered if this was a common concern for international events.

Bradford's thoughts returned to the present when Pyrrha returned with two plates of food and offered one to the Central Officer.

"I didn't know if you've eaten yet, and the kebabs looked delicious on the grill." She explained.

"Thank you, Pyrrha, but I actually had some food with Ruby's uncle a while ago. You should keep the food for yourself." Bradford suspected that Pyrrha was hoping he'd say something to that effect when he saw how quickly she took back the offered plate and tore into the first piece of meat. The group fell into a comfortable silence as Ruby and Weiss people-watched while Jaune and Pyrrha enjoyed their Mistrali lunch.

"It's a shame this only happens once every two years." Weiss commented, "A lot of people could really use something like this more often."

"Us included." Ruby said with a pointed look at her partner, "Even though we had some time off after the alien war, XCOM was still dealing with a lot of issues in the fallout. It's kinda nice being back on Remnant and letting people like Ozpin and Miss Goodwitch handle things for a change."

Ruby's words reminded Bradford of his conversation with Ozpin. Just because RWBY and JNPR were capable of helping with Remnant's problems, should they? Even though they always sounded eager whenever the subject came up, casual comments like Ruby's told Bradford the truth. Suddenly, the prospect of asking RWBY to help with recon ops seemed a lot less appealing to Bradford. He knew that he'd never hear the end of it if he didn't extend the offer and Ruby found out, though.

"On a related note," Bradford said, trying to carefully word his request "I have something I'd like to run by your team, Ruby. You remember when I told Ozpin that I planned to set up a rotation of operatives spending time in Vale?"

Ruby nodded.

"Well, I was hoping you'd be willing to assist them in carrying out reconnaissance objectives I have in mind. I've spoken with Beagle, MacAuley, and JNPR, and we agreed to assess locations like the fairgrounds and Amity Colosseum to determine how to best use XCOM's resources if problems arise." He almost said _when_ problems arise, but knew that sort of doom and gloom was exactly the opposite of what RWBY needed right now.

Weiss nodded, "An understandable goal. Preparedness is like Dust: It's better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it."

"Funny," MacAuley said as he waltzed over to the table with a beer in hand, "I always heard it like 'A gun is like a cond-' "

"Sergeant." Bradford said, his terse interjection accompanied by a withering glare. _Of course_ he'd show up in time for a crude joke.

"Right. Sorry, sir."

"So, what do you think?" Bradford asked, returning his attention to Ruby, "Is this something you'd be interested in?"

"Sounds like Weiss is." Ruby said, "And I'm certain Yang would be, too. I'll have to talk to Blake about it and see how she feels. I think she's still a bit rattled after… you know."

Bradford nodded, "I'll talk things over some more with my staff, and we'll let you all know what we have in mind first. Simple stuff like scouting out vantage points and combat deployments have no chance of raising suspicion, but I have other ideas that will require a bit more... discretion. I suspect the best time to carry out those operations is at night when there is nobody out and about to cause complications. Might take a day or two to iron things out. In the meantime? I think it's in everyone's best interest for us to enjoy ourselves." Bradford checked his chronometer and sighed, "I need to get back to the Temple Ship soon, as does Beagle, but my first order of business will be to send some fresh operatives through to maintain our presence on Remnant. I know that Annette has been itching to come back and check on her new gift from Weiss for a couple of days now."

Weiss smiled, "I actually talked to the weaponsmith this morning. You can tell the Major that the sword is coming along beautifully."

"Excellent. I'll have you know that Annette's been checking out books on swordplay from the ship's library ever since she got back from her first trip. She seems keen on taking this huntress business very seriously."

"I wouldn't expect anything less from XCOM's number one psi op." Weiss said.

"C'mon, let's enjoy the rest of Central's time at the fairgrounds." Jaune said, dropping his last empty kebab stick onto his plate, "Plus, someone should probably check on Beags. Ren hasn't returned from his own reconnaissance mission, and I'm fearing the worst."

Bradford laughed at the idea of Nora putting the Captain in his place. If Beagle was to be Nora's 'father,' it looked like he would be spending a lot more time in the gym for the next couple of weeks to stand a chance of keeping up with his energetic charge.

* * *

A/N: Quick note about battles: I love writing them, but in the interest of moving things along at a reasonable pace, I won't be writing every fight from V3's canon. Important fights will absolutely be written out, but stuff like SSSN vs. NDGO, CY vs. EM, etc... I feel like there are a lot of other interactions that could make better use of this story's word count. For example, spending time with people from XCOM that aren't Bradford. After working on a scene with Dr. Shen for the next chapter, I've been reminded how much fun it is to write everyone's favorite Chief Engineer.

As always, comments and suggestions are welcomed as valuable material for my creative process. I'm juggling a lot more with Remnant Unknown than I did with RWBY Within, so I've become more familiar with the feeling of being slightly lost and asking myself, "Okay, what should I write about now?" So it really helps to have an outside perspective asking, "Hey, what about these dudes?" or "Have you thought about this thing from canon?" The next chapter, for example, will have scenes focusing on Dr. Shen, SSSN, and Remnant!Penny, all of whom have been unfortunately ignored up to this point. I am definitely slowing down the pace of the Vytal Arc so that I have time to look at the different factors leading up to the festival's climax and how the addition of XCOM will change things, but I am certain that there are things I'll forget (or won't even think of in the first place) that deserve to be addressed.


	7. Breathing Room

A/N: Okay, so I know I promised Remnant!Penny in this chapter, but me getting carried away with Dr. Shen meant that didn't end up happening. Hopefully a bit of PennySHIV will make up for it.

* * *

Dr. Shen double-checked the contents of his pack as he prepared to step through the Hyperwave Portal for the second time since its construction. With things quieting down a bit around the Temple Ship, Dr. Vahlen agreed that now would be a good time for Shen to slip away for a day or two to spend some more time on Remnant, introduce himself to some of Ozpin's staff (as well as the headmaster himself), and start working with MacAuley on determining the nature of the technology they would need for Bradford's operations. Shen smiled as he recalled the Central Officer arriving back at the Temple Ship a day ago with his mind filled with ideas for XCOM's presence on Remnant. The Chief Engineer had half a mind to scold Bradford for not taking his vacation seriously, except the sharp upswing in his superior officer's mood and a refocused gameplan told Shen otherwise. Even though he obviously failed in his efforts to separate business and pleasure, at least Bradford's time on Remnant did him some good.

At this hour, the only other people in the Hyperwave room with Shen were Dr. Vahlen, several of her subordinates, and Penny. The Chief Scientist stifled a yawn as she double-checked the readings on the main control panel. Ordinarily, she would trust the techs to do this, but Vahlen preferred to personally see her friend off through the relay. Not only that, but Major Durand left for Remnant half a day ago, and her replacement pilots were still a bit shaky when it came to controlling the ship's power systems during a Hyperwave event. And since Penny spent about half of her working hours on the ship assisting Vahlen (the other half was, of course, spent with Shen), she happily came along to help double-check the doctor's work.

"Do you have everything you need, Ray?" Vahlen asked, having satisfied herself with the numbers on the main panel.

Dr. Shen nodded, "I believe so. Beagle's shipment of Tim Tams arrived shortly after his return with Bradford, and he was adamant that I bring a tray for Ruby's enjoyment. Other than that, I'll only be gone for a few hours, so I don't need to pack too heavily. Ever since we figured out how to tighten up the transmission of data packets between worlds, Weiss has reported that our standard datapads are surprisingly effective at retrieving information from our shipboard database."

" _I wish Weiss would come and visit us sometime._ " Penny said, " _She was a good lab friend whenever Vahlen was busy._ "

A brief silence followed as Shen attempted to stifle a laugh at his colleague's visibly offended face.

"Are you calling me boring, Penny?" Vahlen asked, eyebrow raised.

" _Oh no!_ " Penny rushed to explain, " _But sometimes you look so busy, I don't want to bother you! And if Weiss was in the labs during those times, I could go see her and ask what she was working on. Her research with Elerium Dust was quite interesting._ "

Shen wiped away a stray tear of laughter, "Yes, well… remember that it's only been a day or two from their perspective. I'm sure that our friends will make time to visit us once the Vytal Festival is over."

" _And in the meantime, we just have to visit them!_ " Penny did her little airflip, " _I wish I could go with you, Doctor Shen._ "

Shen patted Penny on the 'head' and gave her a smile, "I do too, my dear, and you will soon enough. But for now, it's in everyone's best interest that you remain here. At least you have Gidjit to keep you company, right?"

" _Absolutely! I did not mean to imply that I am unhappy at XCOM. I am quite proud of the work that Gidjit and I have accomplished, and look forward to showing our friends when I finally get to meet them again!_ "

Showing off that 'work' would only happen if catastrophic events occurred during the festival, of course. Dr. Shen highly doubted that Bradford would be willing to deploy the Odin just so Penny could show Ruby all of its new bells and whistles. And once the Vytal Festival came to a close, it would be time for Shen's robotic friend to return to Atlas and reintegrate with the other Penny. The Chief Engineer still adamantly believed that the Penny he knew deserved to be more than a memory for the 'original.' His little robotic friend remained adamant in her decision, however, and told Shen on several occasions that she would not dishonor the original agreement that allowed her to come to Earth in the first place. Bradford himself had a talk with Penny once (during one of their numerous games of Civ), and informed Shen that Penny had given him the exact same answer.

With a sigh, the elderly engineer decided to shelve that thought for another time and returned to the matter at hand, "Well, no sense delaying any longer. If you would be so kind as to do the honors, Doctor?"

As much as Dr. Shen understood his associate's need for professionalism in the workplace, he wished that Vahlen wasn't so anxious about him using her first name outside of private conversations between her closest circle of friends. He remembered when Moira told him that she'd given her full name to Weiss as part of the young woman's plan to help XCOM's Chief Scientist come out of her social shell. Sadly, the idea didn't seem to progress much further beyond Weiss itself (though Shen did notice how quickly Vahlen became comfortable around her new friend after they were on a first-name basis). Still, just as he respected Penny's wishes, he would do the same for his colleague: Moira in private and Vahlen in public. The Chief Scientist tapped a few keys on the control panel, and the Hyperwave Relay thrummed to life.

Dr. Shen gave Penny one last smile and said, "Keep an eye on my Lily, will you? She's a little grumpy with me right now because she couldn't come along, but I'm sure there's plenty for her to do onboard the Temple Ship while I'm away."

" _Yes sir! Gidgit and I have already spent quite some time with Lily down in Engineering. Gidgit has taken a particular liking to Lily, and it seems that the feeling is mutual._ "

"Gidgit is lucky that Lily has never seen a hostile Cyberdisc." Vahlen said drily.

Satisfied with Penny's answer, Dr. Shen straightened his shirt, picked up his bag, and stepped through the relay. Just as soon as he entered through the Temple Ship, he came out in what he could only assume was Ozpin's office. Dr. Vahlen and Annette's team had become very adept at pinpoint portal operations over the past week, and so deployments to specific coordinates on Remnant had become much easier to accomplish as the process became more and more refined. Dr. Shen glanced around the room (as well as the night sky beyond the floor-to-ceiling windows) before settling his eyes upon a man in green sitting patiently behind a rather ornate desk. Standing behind him, Shen saw four other people: a stern woman with a curious purple cape; a tall, lanky man with a bright yellow tie, who seemed to struggle with standing still; a short, stout man in a deep burgundy suit whose face was hidden by bushy eyebrows and an impressively large mustache; and a middle-aged man slouching against the wall whose red cape immediately reminded Shen of Ruby. The green gentleman in the chair stood up, his eyes glistening as he made his way towards the Chief Engineer.

"Dr. Shen," The headmaster said with a curious amount of emotion in his voice, "It's good to finally meet you."

The two shook hands and Shen answered, "Ozpin, I presume? I'm humbled by your warm welcome, though I'm not quite sure why I deserve it."

Ozpin smiled, "If you'd seen the things Ruby has said in her reports, you might understand why I have as much respect for you as I do. And beyond that, any guest from XCOM can expect the utmost hospitality from both myself, and…" He gestured at the four individuals waiting patiently behind his desk, "… and my staff."

Shen nodded and followed Ozpin back to the table, "Bradford sends his thanks for arranging this meeting at such an… inconvenient hour for yourselves."

"And yet, it is convenient for the nature of what we plan to discuss, I am sure." Ozpin answered with a smile. Shen took a seat in front of Ozpin's desk while the headmaster opted to stand behind his usual chair next to his faculty and began with introductions.

"Miss Goodwitch is both a professor and deputy headmistress of Beacon Academy. She is an invaluable resource for students and staff alike, and will be more than happy to assist you with anything you need."

Perhaps it was the way Dr. Shen naturally came across as an adorable old man (or he was simply to be a future workmate), but Glynda stepped forward and offered the Chief Engineer a sincere handshake, "Ozpin has impressed upon us the importance of XCOM's work, along with your personal ability to improvise and innovate. If it is within my power, I will do what I can to help you."

Ozpin stared at Glynda in surprised silence for several seconds before moving on, "Dr. Oobleck is a historian and scientist as well as an accomplished huntsman. While I'm not certain if his knowledge of Remnant's past will be helpful in your endeavors, his passion for education certainly will."

Oobleck zipped forward faster than Shen's eyes could track and began to rapidly shake his hand up and down while almost shouting at him.

"Very good to meet you, doctor! It is nice to meet someone who shares my interest in the sciences! So many people are happy to go through their daily lives, _never stopping to think about how everything works around them_!I look forward to working with you to unlock the…" He hesitated and took a deep breath before finishing, "Secrets of the universe!"

"It's good to meet you, too." Dr. Shen answered, relieved that Oobleck had given him his hand back, "I'm not sure about unlocking the mysteries of the universe, but it is refreshing to meet someone so fascinated by them."

"Absolutely!" Oobleck exclaimed, "There is so little we know, even about things integral to our very survival! Dust, for example: its use is everywhere, but it's fundamental structure-"

"I think there will be plenty of time for that sort of talk later, Barty." The shorter man cut in with a jovial laugh, "Why don't we at least finish with introductions first?"

As Dr. Shen was left looking forward to witnessing the first meeting between Dr. Vahlen and Dr. Oobleck, Ozpin continued, "This is Professor Port, our Grimm specialist. More than anyone I know, he takes enjoyment in the study and hunt of these dangerous creatures that plague our world."

"And rightly so!" Port exclaimed, "To be pitted against such dangerous foes, to be a symbol of hope in such dark times, could a huntsman truly ask for any greater honor?" He smiled at Shen (probably… the Chief Engineer had a hard time seeing past the mustache), "Of course, it couldn't be done without the skill of researchers and manufacturers such as yourself. Without our highly-specialized equipment, there's no doubt in my mind that we'd fall to the Grimm in short order."

Dr. Shen bowed, "I am glad you appreciate the fruits of our labor. We will continue to do our best to provide you with the resources you need to succeed."

"Glad to hear it!" Port answered in his jovial tone.

"And finally," Ozpin said, "We have mister Branwen. Though he technically belongs to the staff of Signal and not Beacon, I rely on him a great deal for his skill at information gathering and reconnaissance."

"I'm a spy." The man said, rolling his eyes as he shoved his hands into his pockets and smirked at Dr. Shen, "And Ruby and Yang's uncle. Nice to finally meet you, Santa."

Shen laughed, "I see my reputation precedes me. The pleasure is all mine, Qrow."

With introductions concluded, Ozpin took his seat across from Shen and steepled his hands before asking, "So… where shall we begin, Doctor?"

"I take it Bradford has informed you about his plans?" Shen asked. He reached into his pack and pulled out his tablet, preparing to get down to business with Ozpin's team.

"He has, though the details are somewhat vague at the moment." Ozpin's eyes twinkled as he looked at his companion, "I believe that is partly why you are here, is it not?"

"Indeed. First order of business is a short-range, 'off the grid' communication network. It's our only real concrete objective at the moment, as it will enable a lot of other options for us to investigate." Shen passed his tablet over to Ozpin, which showed a rudimentary display of the idea he and Bradford had put together so far, "I believe he is working with Dr. Vahlen on developing some followup projects after the network's completion."

"Sounds pretty fancy." Qrow commented, glancing over Ozpin's shoulder at the image.

Shen shrugged, "At the very least, it will be useful to have an isolated, and therefore secure, communication channel. After having time to examine the scrolls of Team RWBY, it's evident that Earth and Remnant have different information transfer protocols, so having this system in place and independent of Vale's infrastructure is top on Bradford's to-do list."

"Do you suspect vulnerabilities in our security?" Glynda asked, eyebrow raised.

"After dealing with setback after setback at the hands of EXALT, we have learned to trust very little." Shen answered, "Though you bring up a rather interesting point, Miss Goodwitch. Do _you_ have any reason to suspect vulnerabilities in our security?"

Glynda and Ozpin shared a look, which told the Chief Engineer quite a bit. Ozpin took a sip from his mug before answering the question, "We had an intrusion at our CCT tower about three weeks ago. Given the tower's importance to Remnant's global communication network, we immediately conducted a sweep of the systems for any viruses that may have been introduced by the mystery infiltrator. After the scans concluded, our software detected and eliminated several malicious programs. We've been watching the CCT more closely over the past weeks, and haven't noted any suspicious activity since."

"So the worm has either been rooted out, or it's really good at hiding." Shen mused, "I'll have to talk to Bradford about possibly conducting an investigation of our own, though it might not turn up anything. An examination of RWBY's scrolls has given us some insight into Remnant software architecture and protocols, but I would imagine that the CCT is a lot more complex than a handheld device."

"Your twelve-to-one time ratio is rather convenient." Ozpin mused, "Despite how much work you are cutting out for yourself, the luxury of time is still on your side."

Shen laughed, "Which is funny, because a lot of us were concerned that it would be an inconvenience. In the time that it takes for our friends in RWBY and JNPR to graduate beacon, twelve years will have passed on Earth. Friends will have passed away, XCOM's future will likely be in a state of flux, and then there's the sociopolitical implications of Earth discovering Remnant's existence. With opinions and bureaucracy moving twelve times as fast on Earth, do you think the governments of Remnant would be able to keep up?"

"I'll find a way to make time." Ozpin said, a hint of amusement in his voice.

"Considering how much Ruby and her friends respect you, I have little doubt of that." Dr. Shen agreed, "For now, though it might be best if we start getting down to the nuts and bolts of the communications project. While it's primarily technical in nature, I believe I can use the unique expertise of everyone present."

While he would be relying mainly on XCOM's own engineering team to actually set up the system, each of the five individuals before him had a role to play in its success. Oobleck, if his scientific expertise was as strong as Ozpin claimed, would be his primary liaison between XCOM tech and Remnant tech, making sure it interfaced properly where it needed to while remaining separated in critical aspects. Qrow, with his skills in espionage would ensure that the system's existence would remain a secret from everyone but those involved. Port, admittedly, had the smallest part to play, but his knowledge of Grimm would allow the system to be designed and implemented in a way that minimized its risk of damage from Remant's resident monster population. Goodwitch's skill with running a huntsman academy could be applied to helping all the various project teams work smoothly with one another. Ozpin, of course, needed to give his blessing to the project (and all that came after), as well as play the political song and dance if Qrow's efforts failed and others _did_ find out about XCOM's efforts.

The headmaster, for his part, had little trouble fulfilling the first half of his role. With a sip from his mug, he gazed evenly at Shen and said, "Very well. Shall we begin?"

* * *

Weiss sighed as she stared at her scroll, the sun casting a glare on the screen as it peeked over the horizon. True to his word, her father froze her accounts and locked her card, making the youngest Schnee effectively broke. Weiss saw right through his ploy to convince her to return to Atlas with her metaphorical tail between her legs. To be the good little heiress that daddy wanted, who would happily accept a nice, cushy job at the SDC where he could always keep an eye on her. Well unfortunately for him, Weiss knew there was more to living than just money and power. Maybe the old Weiss would have gone back and done what her father wanted, but not this one.

She closed the banking statements and pulled up a different folder. Pages of notes, tests, and graphs opened up, detailing her research with Dr. Vahlen on synthetic Dust. Weiss remembered being so excited when she opened up Vahlen's gift at Christmas. Her first thought was to take their findings and show her father, to show him what she managed to accomplish on her own. Sure, she'd have to wait for XCOM to become publicly known on Remnant, since her father would question how she managed to do this research out in the boonies of the Valean continent while fighting for her life. She wouldn't have been able to explain Elerium while Earth remained a secret, either.

As her initial excitement wore off, though, Weiss began to think about what would happen _after_ she showed her father the research. A direct competitor to the SDC's Dust mines? One that anyone with a laboratory and a bit of Elerium could manufacture? He would make it very clear to Weiss that she never bring that research to light. Well, it was lucky for him that XCOM only had a limited supply of Elerium. While the Temple Ship had massive stores of the stuff onboard, Weiss doubted it would be able to sustain Remnant's Dust economy for very long if Bradford decided to sell it. Enough to support XCOM's military and research efforts (as well as the Temple Ship's power plants) for years to come, sure, but probably not more than that.

So in the end, what would her research prove to her father? That she had a deep understanding of the physical and chemical nature of her family's lifeblood? Her father derided the idea of her becoming a scientist as much as he did her dream of becoming a huntress. Weiss recalled the time in Shen's office when Ruby taught her how to solder, weld, and generally manufacture equipment and modifications. As expected, Weiss was terrible when it came time for her to practice Ruby's techniques, and it made her wonder if her father had intentionally deprived her of these (and other) skills in order to have a greater control over her life. Despite all of his flaws, Weiss still loved her father. She believed that he really wanted what was best for her, but his perception of 'best' differed wildly from her own.

She let out another sigh as she put away her scroll and looked around the streets of Vale as the city slowly woke up from its first night of the Vytal Tournament. There were still lots of first-round bouts to get through today, but the city partied long into the night after the fair grounds closed down for the evening. After Bradford returned to Earth with Beagle and MacAuley, Ruby remained in contact with the Central Officer to remain in the loop on his reconnaissance plans. Despite having 'Phase One' finalized a few hours before midnight (so after two or three days on Earth, by Weiss's calculations), Bradford decided not to wait until morning to send out his first set of operatives. Apparently he sent Shen over several hours ago, but Bradford made it clear that the Chief Engineer had to get through some important work before visiting RWBY and JNPR at the festival.

True to his word, however, Bradford promised to send Annette over as one of the first operatives on reconnaissance detail. She and Weiss made plans to meet up in town to check on Annette's sword before meeting up with the rest of RWBY. True, it had only been two days since they placed the order (Weiss thanked her lucky stars that she paid upfront), but Gus had been known to work small miracles in the past. Weiss checked the time on her scroll and glanced around once more before her eyes settled on the familiar figure of Major Durand.

"Well don't you look gloomy?" Annette asked with a slight smirk, "Am I really that much of an eyesore?"

Weiss managed to let out a small laugh before shaking her head, "No… It's something else. Family business."

"Ah. Say no more."

"Gladly." The younger huntress quipped with an eyeroll, "Shall we head over? I saw Gus open up his shop about ten minutes ago."

The two entered the familiar storefront and were greeted by the cheerful proprietor, "Ah, Weiss! I saw you waiting outside, and so I assumed that I'd be seeing you shortly." He looked over at Annette, "And hello again to you, as well! I am ashamed to admit that I failed to ask for your name last time, Miss…?"

"Durand." Annette answered.

Gus's smile grew even wider, "Well, Miss Durand, I am happy to say that I have something very exciting to show you. If you'll wait right here for just a moment."

Gus ducked into the back room of his shop and Annette found herself looking around the room once again. Some of the weapons in here looked downright ridiculous and unwieldy, yet there had to be _some_ sort of demand for them, or blacksmiths like Gus wouldn't bother producing them in the first place. Still, she felt good about her choice for something simple. While a sword wasn't the flashiest weapon in the world, she at least had plenty of reading material available to learn how to use one without making a fool of herself.

The back door opened once again, and Gus reappeared with a sword in his hands. Annette's eyes grew wide as they roved over the details of the blacksmith's creation. The sword boasted a modest (though thick) pommel and grip, with a gilded cross-guard. Annette suspected that Weiss needed to spend a little extra _somewhere_ to satisfy her personal pride, though the Major was happy to see that the gold inlay erred more on the side of subtle than gaudy. The blade's length was about what she expected, given the other long swords on display in Gus's shop, and Annette assumed that the blade's thickness was intended to add some extra weight to each swing. The metal gleamed in the light, and a familiar inscription along the sword's fuller caught the Major's attention as she took the weapon from Gus.

"Vigilo Confido?" She asked, glancing at Weiss with a smile.

"Miss Schnee asked for that to be etched into the blade." Gus explained, "Though I'm not quite sure what it means, I assume it bears some significance for you."

Annette nodded in confirmation while she continued to examine the sword. After a short while, she looked back up at Gus, "I have to admit, even after seeing the form-shifting capabilities of weapons like Crescent Rose and Gambol Shroud, I'm not sure how you managed to fit a shotgun into this."

"Why don't you lend some Aura to your blade and find out?" Gus asked.

Right, Aura manipulation. Annette had spent some time practicing this with Ren over the past month. Even though he claimed she caught on quicker than a fair number of other students he knew, Annette still felt a bit shaky with its execution. She focused on the energy that rested in her chest, her 'soul,' and tried to draw some of it up to her arms and out through her hands. At first, nothing happened, and so Annette redoubled her efforts to call upon her Aura. Blocking out all else, she turned her senses inward and tried to connect with the energy pooled within herself.

 _There. There it is._

A familiar sensation clicked into place, and this time she felt the soul force begin to flow. Her sword reacted almost immediately: previously imperceptible segments unlocked with a _click_ and the already-wide blade became even thicker. Segments at the tip retracted towards the hilt as the sword's expansion made room for the retreating pieces. The hilt also sprang to life, its own segments starting to curve while a small trigger guard grew out of the hilt and connected with the cross-guard. After a few short seconds, Annette held a shotgun in her hands.

"I did not have enough time to integrate an extended magazine with this setup, unfortunately," Gus explained, "So you will have to reload by hand if you wish to walk off with it today. However, the weapon is able to carry ten shells as is, which is hopefully plenty for your needs. If not, you can always come back for modifications. Alternatively, I assume your familiarity with miss Schnee's companions means that you are friends with Ruby Rose? If I know anything about that girl, it's that she would be more than happy to perform the redesign for you as well."

Annette shook her head, "No… this is magnificent."

"Well, now that you're happy with it," Weiss said, clearly pleased with her friend's reaction, "It's time to give it a name."

Ah yes, the moment Annette had been expecting the moment Weiss expressed interest in getting a weapon crafted. Anyone at XCOM familiar with RWBY or JNPR could tell that huntsmen took great pride in their freedom of expression, and the naming of a weapon was an extension of that cultural practice. The Major spent a fair amount of time over the past couple of days trying to decide on a good name for her new sword before finally settling on one that felt right.

"La Voie et la Volonté." Annette answered almost immediately, recalling her epiphany from yesterday, "The Will and the Way."

Weiss could practically feel the beauty and passion radiating from her friend's words as they reached her ears. At the same time, that name was quite the mouthful, and Weiss doubted if she or her friends would be able to repeat it without butchering the pronunciation.

"It's lovely." Weiss breathed, "Why don't we call it La Volonté for short? The full name rolls off of your tongue beautifully, but I don't know if the rest of us could do it justice."

"Of course." Annette smiled.

Gus coughed quietly, "If you don't mind my asking, what language is that? It sounds exquisite."

Weiss jumped in with an answer, "A very old Atlesian dialect, from back when the kingdom was still known as Mantle. Annette's community is one of the few that still keeps it from being lost to the tides of time."

"How remarkable." Gus said, "Hopefully my craftsmanship does justice to your sword's name and heritage."

With another surge of Aura, Annette form-shifted La Volonté back to its melee form, "I'm sure it will. Thank you for everything, Gus."

The cheerful blacksmith waved as he once again watched the two huntresses walk out of his shop.

* * *

"Sun!"

The boy in question grinned and waved at the energetic Ruby. She ran up to greet him ahead of her team as he stepped off of the airship with his own.

"Hey Ruby, good to see you! You guys looked awesome yesterday!" Sun said.

"And you guys kicked butt today!" Ruby answered. She looked past Sun and gave a thumbs-up to the rest of his team, "Nice job showing those Vacuo girls what for."

Sage nodded, though said nothing. After his early elimination from the match, Ruby didn't blame him for being upset. Still, she knew that there'd be plenty of opportunity in the future for him to show off his true range of combat acumen. His partner, Scarlet, looked much happier with Ruby's congratulations, however.

"Enjoyed our demonstration of skill, did you?" He asked, trying (and partially failing) to adopt a suave pose, "Don't blame you, honestly. There's a reason we're fan-favorites of the girls back home."

"I'm guessing Neptune's hilarious fear of water isn't part of that reason?" Yang asked with a smirk as the rest of RWBY caught up.

Neptune's cheeks burned at the playful insult, "I'm not afraid of water! Just… acutely aware of its combat applications."

"Almost lost the match for your team because of it." Annette said as she sauntered up behind Weiss, "Not exactly a shining moment, if you ask me."

Sun looked at Annette, noted the confidence in her posture and the large sword strapped to her back, and asked Weiss, "Another friend from your super-secret mission?"

"Tech Sergeant Annette Durand." Weiss said, "Annette, these are our friends from Mistral: Sun Wukong and Neptune Vasilias with their teammates Scarlet David and Sage Ayana."

Annette nodded, looking over the boys with a critical eye. As a whole, they did a pretty decent job in the fight she watched (Neptune's stupidity notwithstanding). Sage was caught off-guard and eliminated early, but Sun and Scarlet did a commendable job of playing off of each other and trying to juggle their opponents.

"You guys have skill," Annette admitted, "But you lack the discipline and coordination to really maximize each other's strengths. There's a reason your academies put you into teams of four. Each one of you has the potential to be a force multiplier for your allies, but you need to develop the teamwork to capitalize on it."

It was Neptune's turn to look at Weiss, "Where do you find these people?"

"In a place where working together meant the difference between survival and death." Blake answered, "I suggest you take the Sergeant's advice seriously."

Annette looked at Sage, who wore the same look of surprise as his teammates, and grinned, "Nice sword, by the way."

"Uh… yeah." He answered, sounding almost dazed, "You too."

Ruby clapped her hands, "Well, now that introductions are over and done with, let's get some food!"

The group casually walked towards the fairgrounds while an animated Ruby maintained a lively conversation with everyone else. The boys from SSSN expressed a great deal of interest in Annette's skills and background, and while she had to be careful about the information she could reveal, the Major enjoyed telling stories about her exploits with RWBY and JNPR. Sun kept an eye on Blake as Annette talked, but picked up no signs of awkwardness or fear like he did when he and Neptune first ran into her. He guessed that Annette was familiar with her issues and probably picked stories that Blake would be comfortable with.

The conversation fragmented after a while, and Ruby watched various huntsmen split off into their own personal chats with one another. Neptune was keen on talking with Weiss, who saw no reason to refuse. Sun and Yang, with their cheerfully gung-ho dispositions, talked about their favorite fights in the tournament so far. Interestingly, Sage seemed to gravitate towards Annette, and Ruby listened as the two of them discussed his performance in the fight.

"It still makes me upset thinking about how quickly I got eliminated." Sage grumbled.

"As it should," Annette agreed, "But the bigger point is: did you learn something from it? Outside of a tournament setting, the first mistake for many people often proves to be a fatal one, so you should take advantage of your situation and make the most of it."

Sage raised an eyebrow, "What's there to learn? It was over so quick, I don't know what I could have changed."

"That's an easy one. You don't know what you could have changed because you didn't know the abilities of your foe before diving right in. An alpha strike is often a good tactic, but only against enemies you already understand. When you're up against an unknown? It's better to play it safe before going on the offensive. You'll notice that both RWBY and JNPR displayed this tactic rather well."

"I guess." Sage said, "I was so caught up in the moment, I wanted to prove myself to everyone watching."

As they reached the fairgrounds, a familiar head of green hair caught Ruby's eye. She formed a mental bridge with Annette and relayed her discovery.

 _Don't look now, but Emerald is at our ten o'clock._

"There's always an opportunity to prove yourself." Annette said to Sage, "You just have to recognize when caution is more prudent."

 _I see her. If we get closer, I can have a shot at picking up her thoughts._

" _Candy!_ " Ruby squealed, her eyes wide as she saw one of the booths up and to the left, "I know we're getting lunch, but can we scope out the dessert first? That way, I can figure out how much room I need to save."

Scarlet nodded in agreement, "Good idea, love. Always good to be thinking one step ahead."

 _Got you covered, Major._

With a murmur of assent from everyone else, the group veered towards the candy stand (and Emerald) while Annette simultaneously kept up her conversation with Sage and tried to see what she could dig up on Emerald.

"You sound pretty experienced out in the field, if you don't mind my saying." Sage observed.

Annette laughed, "I don't mind at all, and you'd be correct. What of it?"

 _Alright, here we go._

"Well, maybe we could spar sometime? You could give me pointers on my technique and help me get better."

Ohhh, bad idea. Even though she'd started to practice swordplay on the Temple Ship, Annette needed to avoid actual demonstrations of combat until she got better at the whole huntressing business. She made a show of pondering the question, buying her time to come up with a reasonable side-step while also focusing a little more on Emerald. Her initial attempts at picking up mental impressions came up empty, much to her surprise. Given that she only had a few moments of close proximity before the other woman passed Annette's group, she needed to focus more on that than Sage.

"An interesting idea…" She stalled. Even as she covertly increased her efforts, she only got idle thoughts like, 'I could really go for some food right now,' and, 'I wonder what Mercury is up to?' She could put even more energy into the reading attempt to try and get more out of this kid, but then she'd risk drawing attention to her actions from both Sage and Emerald.

 _Got nothing, kiddo. I'm not sure there's anything nefarious hiding in her psyche if she's wandering around wondering about whether she should have tuna or tacos for lunch._

"I think it would be better if your team had a scrimmage with RWBY, honestly. Like I said, we emphasize squad cohesion in my division, and so I think it would be a better use of your time if you gained experience mastering that aspect of fighting." Annette explained, "That being said, I'd be more than happy to watch and provide feedback about both your individual performance and how well you work with your team."

 _Really? Well, that actually makes me feel a bit better. She seemed nice when she first walked up to us yesterday, and I wondered if that was some sort of ruse to cover the fact she was lying. Guess I just made her nervous or something. Also, it looks like somebody's got a little crush._

Sage looked slightly crestfallen, "That makes sense. A scrimmage is probably good practice for Sun and Neptune, at any rate. Unless Nep gets a water biome again, those two are our best chance at making it to the finals."

 _Shut up, you._

"I'm sure Ruby would be happy to agree to a friendly match as well." Annette said, nudging Ruby's shoulder as the group finally reached the candy shack.

Ruby nodded cheerfully, "You bet! And today's a great day for a training match if you're up for it, since the tournament isn't starting the doubles rounds until tomorrow."

"Yeah, I think we'd be fine with that." Sage said, looking at his teammates eying the desserts behind the counter, "Just gotta get some food in us and a chance to relax for a bit, first."

Before Ruby could respond or start looking at the desserts herself, she heard a quiet "Hey" from behind. She whipped around and saw Team ABRN (complete with a mildly-bandaged Reese) looking back at her.

The members of SSSN exchanged confused glances when their friends from RWBY grew quiet, with a few icy stares thrown at the newcomers. Sun remembered watching the complete shutout yesterday. He felt bad for ABRN, since they seemed like a pretty competent team from what he saw during the school year at Mistral, and was pretty surprised when Ruby's team trounced them so badly. From the looks of it, there was some bad blood between the two teams in the aftermath.

Arslan sighed at Ruby's raised eyebrow before explaining herself, "So it's not a scroll call, but I heard you guys talking about tactics and practice matches. We… got off on the wrong foot."

"That's _one_ way of putting it." Yang snorted.

Ruby shot her sister a glare before turning back to Arslan, "Go on…"

"Well, it's obvious you guys know your stuff." The Mistrali continued, "And if you're offering to help those guys from SSSN… I think we could use the help, too."

The amount of effort it took to admit to her team's failings came across clear as day to Ruby, "Takes guts to say something like that. We'd be glad to help." She glanced at Yang, "Won't we?"

"Ma'am, yes ma'am." Yang said with a half-hearted salute.

"Great." Ruby returned her attention to Arslan, who looked considerably less nervous than she did ten seconds ago, "Well, we're about to get something to eat with the guys. Would you like to join us?"

"Yeah…" Arslan answered, glancing back at her team for confirmation, "That sounds great."

* * *

There was no mistaking it this time. It happened so quickly yesterday that Emerald almost wondered if she imagined it. But just in case, she blanked out her mind at the sight of Ruby and continued to walk by casually and sure enough… she felt it. For as long as she had learned of her own semblance that preyed on the helpless minds of others, that distorted and warped their perception of reality into one that better suited her needs, she had discovered that her ability came with an interesting byproduct: it didn't like other abilities that worked in similar ways. Now, whether her semblance had its own sentience or the rules of the game simply caused it to clash with mental abilities, Emerald neither knew nor cared. What mattered, however, was the strange, almost painful feeling she felt in the back of her skull whenever someone else tried to mess with her head the way she did with so many other poor saps.

Emerald had once chanced upon a wandering huntsman who taught her the trick of blanking her mind as a self defense against mental attacks. She didn't even have to manipulate him for it or anything, just steering their conversation towards the subject was enough to get him talking. He seemed surprised that she was so worried about that sort of thing, and probably thought he was doing his good deed for the day by helping her steel her will against psychic assaults. And while the ability only came in handy once in a great while, it was pulling its weight once more. That subtle prod into her psyche that she hadn't felt in years once again wormed its way into her skull, and that could only mean one thing.

Ruby, or someone on her team, was a mentalist.

This, Emerald realized, could put a serious fork in Cinder's plans. It was lucky that she found out so quickly, though: Emerald shuddered to think what would have happened if she never realized Ruby's ability and the stupid girl gleaned information that she she wasn't meant to know. When did this happen, though? Emerald didn't remember this when her team first ran into Ruby. Sure, the kid and her friends disappeared for a few weeks, but huntsmen go on missions all the time. Besides, people don't just _magically_ get powers out of nowhere. This was real life, not some sort of bullshit fantasy world.

Cinder needed to know about this development ASAP. Emerald always hated being the bearer of bad news for her mistress, but the presence of a mentalist could cause some serious setbacks. Fortunately, the problem could be handled if Cinder took certain precautions and made some modifications to her plan. Step one was to report the issue, though. Emerald made for the dormitories, where she knew Cinder was resting.

During the entire journey, she tried to think of solutions she could present to her boss that would turn this problem into an advantage. Could she try to use false thoughts to plant misdirection into Ruby's reading attempts? No. Filling one's mind with superficial blather was one thing, but trying to replace certain thoughts with contradictory ones rarely worked. The mentalist could usually pick up on the intent to conceal and dig a little deeper for the truth. Other than avoiding Ruby and her friends, nothing clever came to Emerald's mind.

For better or for worse, their mission just got a lot more interesting.

* * *

A/N: Regarding the name of Annette's weapon, I literally chucked "The Will and The Way" into Google Translate and pasted the output into the chapter. If any of you actually know your way around the French language and can give me a better translation, I will happily change the name accordingly.

Speaking of changes, several of you noted that Bradford discussing security and covert ops in a public setting was... odd. I agree completely, and just as I dialed back Ironwood's aggression in chapter two after some feedback, I have adjusted the scene between Bradford and JNPR to better reflect the Central Officer's awareness of his surroundings.


	8. Threat Assessment

A/N: So, got a couple of things to say about time. First, FFN did something funny the day after the last chapter went up and ate all of the reviews posted later than a few hours after the chapter itself went live. Fortunately, everything seemed to have been restored when I checked again a few days ago, so I was eventually able to respond to the questions people had for me, but I just want to note that I would have done so sooner if FFN let me.

Second, wanted to give huge props to my editor, /u/metaboss84, for going through my longest chapter yet even though he only had 1/5th of the usual time I gave him between posting the raw chapter and publishing the finished product. Dude's been with me since almost the beginning of RWBY Within, and I am extremely fortunate to have him.

Third, and related to second, I got a new job a few weeks ago. This is both good news and bad news. Good news: I fucking love my new job. The people I work with are awesome, and the machines I get to work with are super-groovy. It's perfect. Bad news: My job is the quintessential Yandere, and if DrAmish-sempai thinks he can hang out with that bitch Free Time-chan, he's sorely mistaken. In other words, a lot of the free time I had to write while I was looking for a job is gone. While I learn to adapt to my new schedule, I may have to start down-shifting to a two-week cadence. I think I can still get the next one out by Friday the 14th, but I wanted to give you guys a heads up about it.

Anyway, on to the chapter itself. Enjoy!

* * *

Emerald sat on the edge of the bed, still as a statue while she waited for some sort of reaction to the report she just delivered to Cinder. However, Cinder seemed content to just stand in the center of the room, tapping her chin while she made a light 'hmm' sound. The stress continued to build up in Emerald's mind, the worry that Cinder would blame her for the news and leave the street rat out of favor with the only woman who seemed to actually give a shit about her life. Mercury lay stretched out on the bed behind Emerald, evidently undisturbed by the news. Not that this surprised Emerald. He always seemed more keen on just doing what he was told rather than try and help put together a working plan. So long as he got his jollies (and pay) out of the job, he didn't care about the details.

After an agonizing wait, Cinder finally spoke, "A mentalist, hmm? What makes you so certain of this?"

"That's the problem with mentalists, ma'am." Emerald answered, her words as rigid as she felt, "You can never be sure. But when you're familiar with them, you learn to pick up on… sensations that can give away their efforts. It's very subtle, though, and easy to miss."

"And in this particular case?"

"I felt it both times I saw Ruby. The first time when I got the intel about her team's plan for the doubles round, I thought I imagined it. But after passing by them again just now, the same sensation entered my mind."

Cinder raised an eyebrow, "Do you think we've been compromised, then?"

"Absolutely not." Emerald said, her voice more confident. It was partly an act, since she shared similar concerns, be she did _not_ want to give Cinder a reason to abandon her, "I've learned how to empty my thoughts so that it's hard to get a read on them. It's difficult to concentrate on other things while I'm doing it, but I was just walking when I passed by her team the second time, and I only felt the sensation for a few seconds. I'm certain the brat suspects nothing."

"Interesting…" Cinder trailed off. She sat down on the bed opposite of her lackeys and pulled out her scroll. She tapped it a few times, stared at the contents of the screen, and smiled.

"I would say it's likely that you are correct." She said, much to Emerald's relief, "Or at the very least, it is wise to be wary of Beacon's Team RWBY." She tapped the screen again, "And Team JNPR, by the looks of it."

"Think their no-show for the last few weeks means something?" Merc asked, still reclined on the bed.

Cinder nodded, "If our little friend that's been oh-so-helpful in this mission's success has anything to say about it, definitely."

Emerald's ears perked up at the mention of the Queen virus. Did it get some new information for them? She always wondered where Cinder got the software from (Emerald never even knew that a program was capable of everything her boss claimed the Queen could do), but never dared to ask for the source, "What does it say?"

"I've been using it to keep tabs on the old man for a while now." Cinder explained, "And he's had some very… curious conversations lately. From the sounds of it, RWBY and JNPR were involved with some black ops project that left them stranded for the duration of their absence."

That got Mercury's attention, "Black ops? Where?"

"It doesn't say, unfortunately." Cinder answered, scrolling through the data as she talked, "But there are pieces of information that are rather strange. The timestamps on all of the response messages to Ozpin's scroll indicate an incredibly fast turnaround between a question from the old man and its answer."

"Maybe those kids are just good at typing quickly. You know… kids these days and their fancy technology" Mercury said, earning himself a glare from Emerald.

Cinder shook her head, "Not this fast. Two seconds for a full paragraph response is incredible."

Emerald decided to take a (serious) turn at coming up with an explanation, "Perhaps there was a glitch in the software? Is it possible that the Queen is causing hiccups with Ozpin's scroll?"

"Impossible." The speed of Cinder's rebuke caused Emerald to flinch, "I have it on _very_ good authority that our worm is perfect. There must be some other explanation."

"Maybe the location of the op was causing things to be screwy? Like it had spotty connection with the tower or something."

Cinder tapped her chin and seemed to consider Mercury's suggestion. Again, Emerald glared at her partner while their boss mused, "That could be a possibility. Or perhaps Ozpin's equipment isn't quite as robust as he assumes. I confess, I'm not as familiar with the science behind the CCT as our benefactor. Regardless, I brought this matter to their attention recently, and they seem to be unconcerned with it. What it means for _us_ , however, is that caution must be exercised around those two teams." Emerald stiffened again as Cinder looked directly at her, "You've worked incredibly hard on coming up with plans for the hothead, but perhaps it would be worthwhile to consider some alternatives as well."

"Yes ma'am, right away." Emerald answered, standing up.

"I think miss Adel would be a good choice." Cinder suggested, "After all, that minigun of hers looks like it could do some serious damage."

* * *

The lights dimmed, and Sage gripped his sword tightly. To his left, Scarlet flashed him a confident smile and threw his jacket to the floor. To his right, his usually-goofy leader wore look of determination and focus while Neptune had a similar expression (with trace amounts of concern and/or fear) etched onto his face. Across from them stood the four members of Team JNPR with their swords, shields, and hammer at the ready. Sage knew that if this was a real match, his team stood no chance of winning. Mistral's favorite Golden Girl alone could probably give SSSN a serious run for their money, but as a team? Sage remembered watched their match and standing in speechless awe at its conclusion.

Good thing this wasn't a real match, then.

From above, he heard the tiny-yet-authoritative voice of Ruby, "Ready? Begin!"

Like with their bout yesterday, JNPR formed up behind a small shield wall as they waited for SSSN's approach. The boys obliged, and charged towards the enemy formation while Pyrrha and Ren peppered them with rounds from their weapons. Sun spun his staff to deflect as many bullets as he could and Sage tried to hide behind the width of his sword, but the other two had to content themselves with soaking the damage for a few seconds until they could force their opponents into melee.

Except that opportunity didn't come. Before SSSN could finish closing the distance, Nora lashed out from behind the safety of her team leader and ground-pounded the floor. SSSN had anticipated the possibility of another 'Flight of the Valkyrie,' and hoped that their charge would put them inside Nora's leaping distance. But the hammer maiden didn't jump this time, and simply swung her mighty weapon over JNPR's shield wall and smashed the ground with nuclear force.

The kinetic energy from the huntress's blast radiated out towards the Mistrali charge and immediately threw the huntsmen off-balance. Sun managed to think quickly enough and jump over the tremor, only to be knocked out of the sky by Pyrrha's shield. Sage dug his sword into the floor to prevent himself from skidding back and grabbed onto his partner as Scarlet almost flew past him. The two of them got to their feet in time to see JNPR break formation and launch a counter-charge, with Pyrrha and Nora heading for Neptune and Sun while Jaune and Ren moving towards Sage and Scarlet.

Sage stepped in front of his partner, greatsword at the ready. Jaune crashed into Sage and left him open for a flurry of swipes from Ren. Scarlet pulled his pistol off his hip and fired a shot at the occupied team leader. Though it harmlessly bounced off of Jaune's shield, Scarlet managed to get his attention. He rolled under a swipe from the swordsman before attempting a low-sweeping slice at Ren's legs. As he suspected, the martial artist's reflexes proved too fast to be caught by the attack. What Scarlet didn't expect was a quick kick to the chest as Ren came back down from his jump. A shoulder-check from Sage sent Ren skidding while the swordsman pulled Scarlet back to his feet.

The swashbuckler saw Jaune coming in for a back attack on Sage, and he managed to throw up his sword to block the strike less than a second before it landed. Scarlet felt himself almost buckle underneath the force of Jaune's swing, but his deflection proved to be enough to let Sage remain unharmed as he refocused his attention. In the background, they heard yelps of surprise and fear from their teammates amidst the crack of Pyrrha's rifle and the boom of Nora's hammer. Scarlet and Sage tried to come to the aid of their teammates, but Jaune and Ren continually repositioned themselves to prevent it. Short of trying to make a mad dash past the two huntsmen (and thus leaving themselves open to a counterattack), it appeared that Sun and Neptune were on their own until the first obstacle could be overcome.

 _If_ it could be overcome.

Scarlet fired another distracting shot at Jaune while sparks flew from Sage's sword as he dragged it along the floor into an uppercut at Ren. The men of JNPR retaliated immediately, with Jaune using his shield to lash out at an exposed Sage while Ren darted forward to engage Scarlet once again. Sage staggered back from Jaune's blow before regaining his composure and squaring off with his opponent. The green-haired swordsman kept Scarlet's melee in the corner of his eye as he took Annette's advice and tried getting a feel for Jaune's abilities before diving in again. JNPR's leader stared right back at him over the top of his shield, showing no sign of weakness or uncertainty as he slowly advanced on Sage.

Jaune took a wide swing, which Sage easily blocked before realizing too late that the huntsman never intended to actually hit him. Jaune used his momentum to flow past Sage and kicked out the back of Scarlet's leg. Scarlet yelped in surprise before Ren delivered a kick to the side of his head that sent the huntsman tumbling head over feet.

"Scarlet!"

With a running start, Sage planted his sword into the floor and vaulted over the enemy and land next to his partner.

"I'm alright…" Scarlet said, slightly dazed from the headshot.

For a second time, Sage pulled Scarlet back on his feet and the two squared off against their targets. Sage noticed Jaune starting to breath a little heavier, which he took as a sign that they were doing _something_ right.

Scarlet nodded, "Right, let's try another approach, shall we?"

"Can you use your fancy footwork as a distraction and to set them up for a heavy hit from me?" Sage asked. He knew that with a greatsword, he didn't have nearly the same mobility as Scarlet with his cutlass. If Sage wanted to put any real power into his swing, the move would be telegraphed from a mile away. Given Ren's impressive hand-to-hand skills and Jaune's defensive approach, Sage would have a hard time succeeding with a head-on strategy.

"Only one way to find out."

Scarlet launched himself forward at the waiting huntsmen. He knew better than to crash against Jaune's bulwark, so he aimed for Ren first. Blades flashed as he crossed his sword with StormFlower, and Scarlet brought his pistol to bear now that Ren's weapons were tied up. His foe twisted his body just enough to avoid the shot, but now Scarlet had the advantage of momentum.

Jaune moved to help Ren, but kept Sage in his field of vision. Using his shield like a battering ram, he shoved Scarlet off to allow his teammate to reengage on his own terms. To his credit, Scarlet seemed to anticipate the assist and recovered a lot faster than before. He brandished his cutlass and threw himself at Ren again while firing a shot at Jaune to keep his attention as well.

As Sage approached, he watched Scarlet and Ren fight tooth and nail. They slashed at each other with their weapons, struck with their knees, and snarled as they shrugged off blows scored against them. Scarlet sacrificed some of his defensive capability and funnelled the energy into wide exotic sweeps and footwork intended to lash out at Jaune as well as Ren. Sage noted with amusement that the usual roles of tank and skirmisher had been reversed in this case as he skirted around the fray looking for an opportunity to knock one of the battlers off-balance or to capitalize on a setup from Scarlet.

He could see the battle starting to take its toll on his partner, and he knew that Jaune and Ren could keep up this dance far longer than their opponents, but Sage still felt good. Adapting to the situation, trying out new strategies with Scarlet against an impossible foe… he felt alive.

Across the room, Sun and Neptune found themselves struggling to survive against Nora and Pyrrha. So far, Sun managed to fend off the worst of Pyrrha's attacks, though just barely. Neptune, on the other hand, was practically fleeing for his life in Nora's wake. He tried to stand his ground every so often, only to get almost immediately blasted back from another one of the huntress's strikes. Anytime he actually tried to counterattack, Pyrrha and/or her shield seemed to magically appear to lock down the effort.

"Neptune!" Sun called out, "We need to coordinate!"

Neptune rolled his eyes, "Good idea! And how do you propose we do that?!"

 _WHOMP_. Another hammer-shaped catastrophe averted.

"I don't know! But this isn't working!"

"Well, you're both pretty agile fighters. Perhaps you could try ganging up on Nora." Pyrrha suggested as she continued to keep the pressure up against Sun.

Great. Now they were getting advice mid-combat from the enemy. That, and Neptune doubted she would stand idly by while he tag-teamed Nora with Sun. Still, it seemed like the only idea they had at the moment, so Neptune switched his weapon into a rifle and fired a salvo of shots at Pyrrha to give Sun a chance to disengage. His partner took the hint and dropped back just in time to pull Neptune out of the way of Nora's latest hammer smash.

Sun stared at Nora, "That girl scares me sometimes."

"You mean all the time." Neptune corrected, "Ideas for handling this? And for keeping Nikos from destroying us?"

"Hit and run from different angles. Not sure about Pyrrha, though. Just try not to get hit?"

Neptune didn't even bother mocking the inanity of his partner's statement, but rather split off before Nora could take the two out in a single strike. He fired another salvo at the huntress, but that only seemed to piss her off. Sun leapt to the rescue, striking Nora while she focused on Neptune. His foe pivoted in an effort to bring her defenses to bear, but the fluidity and speed of Sun's gunchucks let him easily score hits in quick succession...

"Sun!"

… For about two seconds before Pyrrha smashed into him shield-first. The two went careening across the arena, with Pyrrha recovering with all the grace and agility expected of the Mistrali champion. Neptune raced to his aid, only to be knocked off-course by another hammer shockwave.

Dammit. How could anybody _possibly_ fight back against this?

* * *

In the darkened amphitheater seating above the battle, Arslan sat next to a curious woman as they watched the melee with interest. Arslan couldn't recall ever seeing her before, but she seemed to be very friendly with RWBY (and later JNPR) during the afternoon. The sword she carried on her back indicated that she was a huntress of some skill, and her relaxed demeanor spoke volumes of her experience: confidence like that simply couldn't be faked. When the teams agreed that SSSN could train first with JNPR, Ruby pulled Arslan aside and suggested she sit next to the newcomer and introduce herself. She did so, found out the woman was one Sergeant Durand, and the two hadn't spoken a word since the start of the match. What was even the point of this?

Well, Arslan had decided earlier today that Ruby Rose was someone she wanted to trust, so she would look pretty stupid if she gave up on that this early.

"Looks like JNPR is just toying with them at this point." Arslan commented, eyes still glued to the match, "They've got the match in the bag, why not just finish things and be done with it?"

To her surprise, Durand answered almost immediately, "Two reasons come to mind. First, caution will always win out over pride. Even in a match where you _know_ you have the upper hand, all it takes is one mistake to flip the tables. You see this as JNPR toying with their food. I see it as JNPR securing their win with slow and steady progress. Second, this is an educational scrimmage. The point is to force the guys out of their comfort zone and adapt using tactics they're not entirely familiar with. Jaune's team isn't out there to just show how easily they can wipe the floor with SSSN."

"Wish RWBY felt that way during our match." Arslan grumbled. She was willing to bury the hatchet, but that didn't mean the memories would magically stop hurting.

"Heard about that." The Sergeant said, casting a glance at Arslan, "My commanding officer was here for the match, and said that it was pretty brutal. He actually seemed somewhat shocked about it, though I'm not sure I share the same sentiment."

Arslan scowled, "So you _agree_ with how they behaved in the tournament?"

"I didn't say that. Let me ask you this: how did it feel to get so utterly annihilated in your first match?" Arslan's jaw dropped as Durand turned and looked her square in the eye.

"Come again?"

The woman repeated herself, slowly, "How. Did it feel. To lose so badly?"

Arslan wanted to punch Durand in her stupid face, but reminded herself why she was here in the first place. She took a deep breath, and thought about how to answer the question honestly, "Awful. Embarrassing. Each time I heard the buzzer, it felt like I was a failure to my team. By the end, I could hardly see anything in front of me as shame obscured my vision more and more."

"Embarrassment and humiliation…" Durand repeated. Was there amusement in her tone? "You feel these things instead of crippling fear and abject horror because at the end of the match, you and your friends stand up and walk off of the field. You don't get embarrassed when you see your teammate get impaled to a tree by a Nevermore: you get the overwhelming urge to throw up, curl yourself into a ball, and wish you were anywhere but here. You don't feel humiliated when you leave on an op with a team of eight well-trained soldiers and return with half that many: you feel absolutely nothing, like your soul has left you to rot alone in your failure."

Arslan's eyes slowly widened as Durand's narrowed, "This is the world beyond the safety of schools and tournaments, Altan. It is a world full of horror and death, and the only way you don't follow in the footsteps of your friends to your grave is by adapting, becoming as ruthless as the monsters that stalk you and having the _will_ to stare death in the face and tell it 'No.' "

The silence that followed was only broken up by the sounds of the battle below. The mysterious huntress turned her attention back to the fight and left Arslan to take in what she had said and process it. From Ruby's impassioned speech in the locker room, Arslan suspected there was more to their actions than mere grandstanding and competitive pride. Durand's words painted a picture far more horrifying. While she didn't know the exact relationship between RWBY, JNPR, and whoever this Sergeant represented, it sounded like they went through hell together.

 _And survived,_ Arslan reminded herself. Whether their souls came out the other end in one piece remained to be seen, however. If this was a glimpse into her future as a huntress, Arslan wasn't sure she still wanted it.

"Why do it, then?" She asked, "If fighting the Grimm is so awful, why do you do it?"

"Who will, if I won't?" Durand answered, "If this is something that is so horrific, so unbearable, what right do I have to expect someone else to do it for me? And if nobody steps up, the human race faces total and utter annihilation."

A fair point, though Arslan wasn't sure if that answered the question to her satisfaction. As she understood the logic, _everyone_ should feel obligated to sign up and fight the Grimm. Unless the woman was only referring to individuals with combat skills good enough to fight. That made more sense: if you can and you don't, then it's a waste, isn't it? Either way, the two fell silent once more as they watched the match begin to wind down. SSSN fought bravely, but they simply lacked JNPR's level of coordination and endurance.

Annette, slightly amused by the mental gymnastics she was passively reading from Arslan, made a mental note to commend Sage on his efforts to play off of his partner. They held off Jaune and Ren for far longer than she expected, though the men of JNPR came out victorious in the end. It almost seemed like a mirror match, as Scarlet's agility and bag of tricks complemented Sage's raw strength and power in the same way that Ren worked well with Jaune.. She spent most of her time watching the green-haired swordsman, mainly because she wanted to see how he wielded his massive sword. La Volonté wasn't quite as heavy, but she thought that observing his fighting style might serve to help Annette as she worked to develop her own.

"I'm not trying to scare you away from becoming a huntress." The Major said, once again picking up her conversation with the team leader seated to her left, "Quite the opposite, in fact. However, I don't want you to have falsely romantic ideas about what it's like to be a warrior. Team RWBY believes you to be a talented leader, but you need to have the strength and resolve to command your squad when everything feels like it's falling apart around you."

Arslan made a sound of affirmation, though her mind really only latched onto one part of Durand's statement: RWBY believed in her. After a fight like their first, how could those girls possibly harbor anything but contempt for Arslan? It didn't make sense, at least to her, but perhaps it would be wise to try and prove them right.

"Alright, Team SSSN! Front and center!" Ruby shouted, hopping down the steps towards the arena as the lights turned back on in the training room. The four huntsmen picked themselves up (or took an offered hand from JNPR) and assembled before the waiting caped leader. Ruby pulled out a notebook, flipped to the front page, and began to pace back and forth as she looked over her match commentary.

"Sun, love the enthusiasm, but you're way too aggressive. Pushing the action is good, but a constant theme you'll be hearing from me, the Sergeant, and pretty much everyone else on my team or Jaune's is to gauge the enemy _before_ going on the offensive. Overextend yourself, and you'll find that the enemy will punish you for it."

"Wait, what about Nora?" Sun asked.

Ruby smiled at the question, "Good point! But it makes sense if you think of Nora as an extension of her team instead of an individual fighter. She can come blasting out of the gate because it's part of JNPR's tried-and-true strategy for testing the waters. They have…" Ruby glanced at Jaune for confirmation, "Six? Six different options to come to their teammate's aid if an undesirable situation comes up. They're a prime example of a team that has taken the time to learn each other's strengths and develop strategies that let everyone work in tandem with everyone else.

"Neptune!" Ruby half-shouted, turning her attention to Sun's partner, "You need to get your head in the game, friend. I know that getting jumped by Pyrrha and Nora is a terrifying prospect, but who ever said that being a huntsman would be safe?"

Pyrrha nodded, "I can tell that you have the skill to succeed, Neptune, but it's almost as if you don't believe in yourself."

Neptune's cheeks flushed red as the girls pointed out his deficiencies, "I'm not afraid, I swear. You guys just… caught me off guard, and it was all I could do to just stay on the defensive with Sun. Maybe I just froze up."

"Which is exactly what you need to not do." Annette whispered to Arslan.

"Don't lose hope." Weiss said, offering a compassionate smile to Neptune, "Pyrrha and Nora came at you hard because that's how you get better. Just ask Jaune about how long it took for him to finally best Pyrrha in a match."

"One hundred and twenty-four failures over the course of five days." Jaune supplied, "And she never once went easy on me."

"Would it have helped if I did?" Pyrrha laughed.

While Sun let out a low whistle, Ruby flipped to the next page of her notebook and turned to SSSN's green-haired swordsman, "Sage, Annette and I were particularly impressed with your performance with Scarlet. For the most part, the two of you prioritized keeping each other safe over forging ahead to strike back against your opponents. That is exactly the kind of cooperation that we want you guys to get the hang of. Scarlet? Loved the creative use of your tools and speed to give Sage the extra space he needed to get back into the fight. That being said, there is plenty of room for improvement. A few of your combinations looked clunky, and Jaune and Ren had little trouble working around them to score some solid hits. It's not something some focused practice can't help, but it's something to be aware of."

Sun scratched his head as Ruby closed her notebook and beamed at her friends, "Uh, no offense Ruby, but that was sorta… vague. Do you have any notes on specific things you saw with our technique?"

"What? O-oh. Yeah, I can… uh… let me just…" Ruby flipped through her notes, trying to see what she could say to satisfy Sun's question. She didn't want to disappoint her 'students,' given that they came to her because they respected her team's fighting prowess. She needed to prove that she deserved that respect.

Annette, however, had other ideas, "This is combat, not mathematics or language arts. There is only a small range of techniques that can be learned from books and memorization of movements. Beyond that, experience is your best, and perhaps only, teacher. You learn what sort of blocks won't work when they fail to save you from Nora's hammer, and you determine how to get past Jaune's shield by experimenting until you successfully land a solid blow to his gut. And then you do it again, only this time you know slightly more than you did after your previous match."

"So why don't you show them?" Arslan asked, "Go one-on-one with Sage or Neptune so they can learn from experience by fighting against you."

Before Annette, Ruby, Weiss, or anyone else from RWBY or JNPR could come up with an appropriate deflection to Arslan's question, somebody knocked on the door leading out into the hallway, followed by a familiar voice of innocence.

"Ruby? Is that you in there, friend?"

Annette wondered if Ruby got whiplash from snapping her head around so fast to the back of the room as the door creaked open and a head topped with orange hair and a pink bow peeked into the room. Her green eyes blinked in surprise when she saw everyone else.

"Oh! I'm sorry for intruding, I'll come back later-"

" _PENNY?!_ "

A Ruby-sized bullet slammed into the newcomer, who found herself pulled into a crushing bear hug.

"Oh my, that is quite the warm welcome!" Penny said cheerfully, "It's good to see that you've missed me as much as I've missed you!"

Neptune glanced around at everyone else still standing on the arena floor, "Uh… what's going on?"

"Shhh shh shhhh." Weiss said, holding a finger up to his lips, "Ruby is having a moment. Let her have it."

Ruby glanced back into the room, remembering that she wasn't alone, "Right! C'mon Penny, let's go say hi to everyone else."

The two friends made their way down the stairs, Penny's hand firmly grasped in Ruby's own. Penny recognized everyone present from the dossiers her father had required her to read in preparation for the tournament. She wasn't surprised to see JNPR with RWBY, given how friendly the two teams were at the dance. SSSN too made sense, as Penny recalled hearing about Sun and Neptune's courtship attempts from Ruby. ABRN, however, confused her. Why would they be spending time with RWBY after that first match? Well, no matter. Ruby didn't seem uncomfortable by their presence, which probably meant they were friends by now. And any friend of Ruby was a friend of Penny.

"SSSN? ABRN? This is a good friend of mine, Penny."

"Friend of _ours_." Weiss corrected.

"Sal-u-tations, everyone!" Penny greeted, "It's nice to see people spending time together like this. I hope I wasn't interrupting anything."

Sun shook his head, "Nah, just getting some extra training from Ruby and her friends."

"Getting our heads chewed off, more like." Neptune muttered.

"I highly doubt that my friend Ruby would be that mean, mister Vasilias!" Penny huffed, "I'm certain that whatever advice she gave you was for your own good. Isn't that right, Ruby?"

The young leader couldn't help but giggle as she nodded in agreement, "Absolutely. Now I believe we have another match to run. ABRN? Would you like to have a rematch with my team?"

Truthfully, that was the last thing that Arslan wanted. She'd hoped that RWBY would fight against SSSN so that JNPR would be the ones to face off against Arslan's team. Even if Ruby was trying to extend an olive branch with this friendly training stuff, a match against Jaune's more… restrained team would have been a better way to start things off.

"Sounds good to me!" Arslan looked back to see Reese flashing a cheerful grin and a thumbs up.

Right. She was a leader. She didn't have the luxury of complaining about who to train with, now did she? Durand's words from before crossed her mind again: _you need to have the strength and resolve to command your team when everything feels like it's falling apart around you_. It would be melodramatic to consider this situation to be as dire as what the other huntress described, but Arslan did need to demonstrate her willpower as a team leader. Right now, that meant putting aside petty feelings and doing what was best for her team.

"Yeah, we're ready. Let's do this."

"Sensational!" Penny cheered, "I look forward seeing everyone give it their all!"

* * *

" _Is it really necessary, General? Surely there is a better way to satisfy your curiosity._ "

James Ironwood sighed. Seated at his desk aboard the flagship Atlesian Cruiser stationed above the city of Vale, the headmaster of Atlas Academy and Chief of Security for the Vytal Festival stared evenly at his video screen and into the concerned face of his kingdom's top scientist.

"It's not a matter of my curiosity, Mr. Polendina. You and I both know how maddeningly evasive Ozpin is acting right now, and I need to figure out why."

" _By using my daughter as an unwitting spy? General, I hope you understand why I do not agree with your idea._ "

Ironwood did. He absolutely did. But Penny presented the perfect opportunity (and perhaps his only hope) for finding out something, anything, from miss Rose about Ozpin's dealings. While Beacon's headmaster politely refused to offer any details about the Valean Recon Division or its operations in the south, Ironwood knew that Ruby's team became deeply entangled in the mission at some point. He had some other plans waiting for execution over the next day or two, but every day lost was costly in this intelligence war.

War? Ironwood sighed as he caught his choice of words. Ozpin was an ally, for fuck's sake. A vague, mysterious ally, but he had never once given his colleagues reason to truly doubt his loyalties and resolve to keeping the world spinning. The new Bradford fellow would need further observation before Ironwood could come to any sort of assessment of the man's personality, but these people weren't the bad guys. Just… slightly suspicious friends.

"I empathize with your predicament." Ironwood answered, "Perhaps it would be best to consider the situation in a different light. Your daughter has become rather close with miss Rose, and became mildly despondent when her newfound friend disappeared. We are doing her a favor by bringing RWBY's return to her attention."

"… _and committing an invasion of privacy in the process._ "

Nothing could be said to refute that claim. Piggybacking off of Penny's visual and auditory feeds without her knowledge _was_ a pretty terrible offense, but Ironwood knew that Mr. Polendina's surrogate daughter would be equally terrible at acting normal if he asked her to keep tabs on Ruby's circle of friends. That, or she'd outright tell Ozpin's favorite pupil and unleash a storm of headaches and embarrassment that Ironwood didn't really want to deal with.

So he would bend the rules (with no small amount of dismay at the prospect) for now so that the kingdoms could remain safe. Because any unknown, even one that Ozpin seemed to trust, needed to be identified and addressed.

"A necessary evil, unfortunately. And one whose burden I will take myself."

" _You seem to forget that by taking part in the execution of your plan, I am forced to shoulder some of that guilt as well._ "

For what seemed like the tenth time in ten minutes, Ironwood sighed again, "And I pray that you will forgive me in time, my friend."

* * *

Across the vastness of time and space, aboard a flagship of his own, another military leader was holding a conference with his trusted colleague. Bradford stood in the Situation Room with Dr. Vahlen while the scientist's communication protocols established a link with Dr. Shen. They waited patiently as the minutes ticked by before finally hearing the voice of their friend.

" _Greetings, Bradford. I trust that Doctor Vahlen is with you?_ "

While the time delay phenomenon still caused problems for a live video feed, Dr. Shen's voice came through crisp and clear. Perhaps his R&D team would find an elegant solution for video, but the current system worked well enough for Bradford.

"She is." The Central Officer answered, "How are things going with our new friends?"

Another few minutes passed before Dr. Shen's equipment compiled his reply and sent the data packet back through the transdimensional wormhole.

" _Rather well, I would say. Ozpin has quite the… interesting staff._ "

Bradford and Vahlen exchanged glances before the Central Officer answered, "Interesting in a good way, I hope?"

" _Oh yes. I do appreciate your prior warning about Ruby's uncle, however. He is as brusque as you described, and I am certain I would have been taken by surprise had you not informed me. He is a good man, though. It's very clear that he cares about his nieces._ "

Anyone who spent more than five minutes with Qrow would know how important Ruby and Yang are to him. That level of compassion resonated with Bradford, and he looked forward to his next meeting with the man. But now wasn't the time to think about such things or discuss them with his Chief Engineer. Especially from Shen's perspective, time was a limited commodity, and they had business to discuss.

"Changing subjects, what is your personal assessment of the situation, Ray?"

A longer silence followed before a response came this time.

" _I came across some rather troubling news during my talk with Ozpin. There was a break in at the CCT a few days before Ruby found XCOM, and it is likely that the saboteur attempted to inject a program into Remnant's communication's network. Ozpin's resources found nothing to confirm this, but it is nonetheless a potential vulnerability we should be aware of._ "

Bradford thought that qualified as slightly more than 'troubling,' given his understanding that all wireless data was routed through the CCT network. With the idea that someone may have eyes on that at all times… the need for a separate channel of communication became all the more imperative. The current conversation would be 'safe,' given that it used a direct transmission across the Hyperwave Relay that did not require the CCT. However, he didn't want to have secure communications cut off if the relay ever had to go offline for any reason. Establishing a groundside system provided a failsafe for that possibility.

"I want all communication with Ozpin, RWBY, and JNPR to be directly in person or through Hyperwave comms until we get our own relay established. Shen, tell me what you need to move quickly and I'll make sure you have it."

"My researchers have been assisting your engineering staff with developing a prototype system." Vahlen added, "I can pull off a few more from less-important projects and reassign them to communications."

" _That would be appreciated. Ozpin's staff is very helpful in this project, but having more manpower would certainly move things along faster. Would it be possible to have Sergeant MacAuley join me on Remnant? I understand that he just returned from an extended stay, but his skills with power management and electronic signaling makes him an ideal candidate for additional support._ "

If MacAuley was heading back, that meant Beagle would likely raise hell if he didn't go along with his subordinate. Perhaps Bradford could convince the Captain to provide topside support from the Temple Ship and act as the liaison between Shen/MacAuley and XCOM's R&D.

"I'll get on it, Shen. There's one more thing I'd like to discuss with you before we're finished here: the REMCOM Project."

Bradford could practically feel the sigh of disappointment coming from his Chief Engineer across transdimensional space. Shen was more than happy to provide support for Ruby and her friends in XCOM's current capacity, but he wasn't pleased with Bradford's latest initiative.

" _What is there to discuss?_ "

Shen's voice was icy, but respectful.

"I've held meetings with several of our squad leaders, who have in turn talked with their teams and reported back to me. From the outset, I instated a rule that any operatives with family were disqualified from REMCOM unless they wished to make a personal appeal directly with me. You'd be surprised how many appeals I received, but the acceptance rate from those who qualified by default is even more impressive."

Silence.

"Ninety-five percent." Vahlen supplied, "Only five operatives declined the offer."

"Ray, the men and women of XCOM are more than willing to fight for what Ruby believes in the same way she did for us."

" _With respect, you're playing with fire. The XCOM Project was founded as an extraterrestrial combat unit whose sole purpose is to defend the Earth from outside forces. You have no authority to appropriate operatives provided for that purpose and use them to wage a war on a far away planet. Our resources weren't free gifts from the Council, Bradford. If you truly wish to go forward with this initiative, you need to convince them that it is a worthwhile operation._ "

As much as Bradford hated the idea of dealing with those jackasses, he knew Shen was right. Even after his brief vacation on Remnant, the Council still proved to be extremely uncooperative. They tolerated Bradford and kept XCOM operational because of the remaining Grimm threat, but they constantly second-guessed him and questioned his motives for keeping the Temple Ship out of their hands. If they tried to be more forthcoming with their _own_ motives, Bradford would be more inclined to trust them. As it stood, however, they acted like a bunch of children complaining that they no longer had the biggest stick on the playground while refusing to meet to discuss the stick.

Bradford had no desire to keep the Temple Ship for personal gain. He had no desire to become Earth's first space-faring privateer, joyriding in his UFO with XCOM's merry band of operative pirates. He simply had a strong appreciation for the power represented by the Temple Ship, and how that power could easily be misappropriated by someone with malicious goals. Until a good solution could be reached to prevent that possibility, Bradford would simply keep the ship away from the Council.

The Central Officer sighed, "Just thought I'd let you know about the support for the program, Ray. With any luck, we won't need to use it soon… or ever."

" _Something tells me you don't believe that. But we have more important things to concern ourselves with. I will continue working on the communication system and report to you any worthwhile findings._ "

"Thank you, Shen. I think we're done here."

The commlink went offline, and Vahlen turned to leave. Bradford cleared his throat to get her attention.

"Actually, Doctor… there's something else I wanted to discuss with you."

Vahlen raised an eyebrow, "You didn't want to bring it up with Shen?"

"Not so much." Bradford sighed, "That, and it's up your alley more than his. It's about Penny."

The Chief Scientist nodded, and her expression told Bradford that she immediately deduced what he wanted to ask. Even so, he felt the need to ask her anyway, "She's dead set on recombining with the original Penny, no matter who talks to her about it. I've tried, Shen's tried, and even Ruby has discussed it with her friend. She remains firm in the belief that reintegration was part of the deal that allowed her to come here in the first place, and she refuses to let us break our promise to her father."

"True…"

"So it's pretty much a given that she's going to go back and merge with the other Penny. No point trying to change that. But what if we could make a copy to keep for ourselves?"

"Sounds like someone is going to miss having Penny around." Vahlen said in amusement, "And while I certainly don't blame you, Penny has made it very clear that such an action would be against her wishes."

"She's made it very clear that she plans to re-merge with the other Penny." Bradford corrected, "She can still do that _and_ remain with us."

The Chief Scientist shook her head, "No, Bradford. You are mistaken. Penny has always operated under the assumption that she was to only be temporarily separated from the 'original.' From that sort of mindset, her existence isn't an independent entity so much as it is the execution of a program that is intended to run for its duration and terminate at the conclusion after returning the desired information. She has always seen herself as part of the other Penny. Imagine how it must feel to have people asking her to remain in that state? To suddenly have to develop an identity of your own? Once I realized that this was the main reason she firmly stood by her decision to return to the other Penny, I felt terrible for all the emotional stress we've probably been putting her through."

Bradford hadn't considered that. He was used to needing to adapt. The war demanded it, after all. But Penny? How old was she, really? Sure, she was a good fighter, knew enough to appreciate the danger of the war and to take combat seriously, but philosophical ideas like individuality and self-determination... those took some time to really grasp.

"And then there's the fact that Penny is the daughter of a top scientist from Atlas who works very closely with their military. While it's probably heartless to do so, I would imagine that Ozpin's associate, Ironwood, views her as property of Atlas. Ozpin has already informed us that he's getting some pressure from the General to have us turn over Penny sooner rather than later, and he's only managed to convince Ironwood otherwise by claiming that it's for her own safety that she stays here. Whether we think Ironwood has the right to demand that we give back the one and only version of Penny that we have, failure to do so would likely cause a rift between Atlas and Vale."

"A rift that we can't exactly afford to make." Bradford admitted

Vahlen nodded, "What you're asking me to do is technologically possible, but not morally or politically advisable."

"Not morally advisable, huh?" The Central Officer asked, an amused grin on his face, "This coming from the scientist instructing our operatives not to use explosives because she wanted undamaged salvage."

The doctor rolled her eyes, "That was a long time ago, Bradford, and you know it."

"Just pulling your leg, Vahlen. Thank you for... explaining things to me."

"Of course, Bradford. Penny is a part of this team as much as anyone. I really do wish we could keep her."

"I guess all we can do is make the most of the time we have left." Bradford checked his watch, "Perhaps I can make some room in my schedule for another game of Civ."


	9. Pursuit of Knowledge

A/N: Aaaaaaaaaand sliding into home, we have DrAmish who managed to stick to the week-and-a-half schedule one last time so that his updates could come on Fridays. Got some plot progression for all of you lovely people, which I'm pretty happy with. The post went up a few hours later than I wanted because my editor pointed out that I was starting to write Bradford more like a happy-go-lucky boy scout rather than a war-hardened veteran. So once again, comments on tone and character personality is extremely valuable.

One other, slightly minor, note. I had an interesting talk with a reviewer over the last week, where it was pointed out that Vahlen's data loss justification for not 'cloning' Penny doesn't quite hold water given advances in modern technology. I meant to go back and change that scene before this chapter went live, but ended up not having time. I'll try to get to it this weekend, but the general idea is that Bradford understands that 1) Penny doesn't want to have a permanent copy of herself, and 2) Ironwood and Papa Polendina probably don't want proprietary Atlas technology in the hands of outsiders longer than agreed upon. Given Bradford's strong moral compass (and his need to make nice with the kingdoms of Remnant), he probably wouldn't want to test their good will by 'stealing' Penny for himself.

In any case, enjoy.

* * *

"So what's your sister's name again?"

"Winter. Honestly, Ruby, how many times do we have to go over this?"

"I… umm…"

"If you didn't get so easily distracted by weaponry and food, _maybe_ you'd have an easier time of paying attention."

"Well it's not my fault that this is literally the greatest gathering of huntsmen from across the world that I've ever seen! _And_ I saw Penny for the first time in months a few hours ago!"

"Oh hush. Besides, she's coming in now."

Ruby tracked Weiss's finger as she pointed into the evening sky, and indeed saw a ship far more ornate than the usual ferry transports. Four stabilizer wings, each adorned with tapering blue banners extended from a sleek hull that looked far more technologically advanced than any (civilian) aircraft that Ruby had seen during this festival. The mixed look of trepidation and excitement on Weiss's face made it difficult for Ruby to guess whether or not her partner was looking forward to seeing her sister. Either way, the two of them waited for the ship to slowly land on the sky dock. The gangplank lowered, and an elegant young woman flanked by an honor guard of androids stepped down onto the landing pad.

"Winter!" Weiss called out. Her sister looked over at the sound of her name and returned Weiss's cheerful wave with a faint smile. Rather than wait for Winter to walk over, Weiss ran (with Ruby in tow) to stand face-to-face with her sister.

"Winter, it's so good to see you!"

One pointed look from Winter was all it took to remind Weiss that Schnees needed to carry themselves with a certain degree of dignity and formality. The younger Schnee immediately snapped to attention and cleared her throat, "Welcome to Vale, Winter."

Winter nodded, evidently pleased by Weiss's corrected behavior, "Thank you. At ease." Winter took a moment to cast her gaze upon the grounds of Beacon before sniffing slightly, "It's been a long time since I've been here. It's… different, and yet still the same. Come, introduce me to your acquaintance."

"Of course, sister." Weiss gestured to Ruby, "This is Ruby Rose, my partner and team leader."

"A little young to be a student here, no?" Winter asked, eyebrow raised, "And a team leader as well."

Ruby, unsure of what to do, settled with a bow and a salute, "If I've learned anything here, it's that looks can be deceiving. It's an honor to meet you, Lady Winter… ma'am."

Weiss rolled her eyes, "I'm still trying to teach her social skills, don't worry. But she's an excellent team leader. I'm sure you saw our first match in the tournament."

Winter nodded, "Your tactics were quite… interesting. With the level of skill you displayed, however, you could have ended the engagement much sooner with a more direct approach. Moreover, we'll have to talk later about your glyph usage, Weiss. For something that requires finesse and flair, the abilities you displayed were rather… rudimentary."

"O-oh. Of course." Weiss responded, slightly taken aback by the criticism.

"With respect… my lady," Ruby hesitantly started, still uncertain how to address Winter, "I agree that a head-to-head strategy would have been faster, but I would argue that the risks would have been greater. By digging in behind the safety of the ice walls, our team was able to set up a kill zone where the enemy would have to face us on our terms, and it allowed Weiss to capitalize on her affinity for ice techniques. I don't know about you, but I'd rather have a longer engagement with a higher chance of one-hundred percent survivability than a quick-and-dirty brawl that essentially depends on a dice roll to determine whether my entire team comes out of it intact."

Silence hung in the air. Weiss scrambled to pick her jaw up off the floor while Winter gave Ruby a curious look.

"Ruby!" Weiss admonished before turning to her sister, "I'm sorry, Winter. Ruby's not familiar with standard etiquette. The social rules in Vale are almost nonexistent."

"Hmmm." Winter said, evidently unconvinced by Ruby's tactical assessment, "Answer me this: wouldn't a longer engagement increase the number of opportunities for an injury or fatality among your team?"

Ruby nodded, "You're right, but it's a calculated risk. I think it gives me the ability to exert greater control over more of the variables. So long as the environment and skillsets of my teammates provide me with options to lock down our targets, we can minimize those opportunities for casualties while keeping the fight in our favor."

"I don't agree with you." Winter said flatly, "But I can respect that you've clearly put some thought into it."

"Thank you miss Winter, sir…" She scratched her head and gave an embarrassed chuckle, "Weiss isn't wrong about the whole etiquette thing, though. What am I supposed to call you?"

Winter gave the young girl a smile that was both pitying and slightly cold, "Specialist Schnee will be sufficient, thank you." She turned to her sister, "I trust you'll help your... friend here with matters of etiquette in the future?"

Weiss jumped immediately to answer her sister, slipping into her old overly-dignified tone, "Of course. Shall we give you a tour of the grounds? An inspection of our dorm room?"

Winter checked her watch, "Actually, I need to meet with your headmaster, if you don't mind. There were some… delays on the journey here, and he's expecting me sooner than I'd have liked."

Ruby's stomach did a little twist at the mention of Ozpin. Even though she got off with a light admonishment over the Cardin Incident, all things considered, Ruby still cringed at the shame of having to be scolded in the first place. She felt even more guilty when he echoed Blake's sentiment that it'd be very easy to instigate a Grimm attack by accidentally igniting panic amongst the crowd.

But no matter. If Winter wanted to meet with Ozpin, then it wouldn't do for Ruby to slink off and hide because of yesterday's reprimand. Weiss, nodding at her sister's request, seemed to agree, "Another time, then, for the room inspection. I happen to know that Ozpin is in his office now, so we'd be more than happy to accompany you there."

After Winter dismissed her guard of mechs, the duo-turned-trio began their walk along Beacon's grounds towards Ozpin's tower. Weiss talked awkwardly at her sister, clearly trying to undo nine months of cavalier banter and speak in a tone appropriate of her 'station.' It surprised Ruby to see her partner so accustomed to receiving criticism almost every time Winter deigned to give a response. While Ruby wanted to stick up for Weiss (who absolutely deserved to be complimented instead of shamed, in Ruby's opinion), she didn't know if this was some sort of weird family dynamic that Weiss and Winter viewed as perfectly normal. Ruby already overstepped her boundaries once, and was lucky enough to get off with a compliment. For now, she decided to listen to all the criticism Winter threw at Weiss. Once they were alone again, she'd offer to train with Weiss and help her with these 'shortcomings.'

A loud, slow clap pulled Ruby out of her thoughts, and she looked up to see a shadowy figure approach them.

"Well, well… look who decided to finally show up. Fashionably late, of course."

While the dim lighting managed to conceal the newcomer's face, Ruby could never mistake that voice in a thousand years.

"… Uncle Qrow?" She asked, confused.

The man, indeed her uncle, stepped forward and offered an exaggerated bow to Winter, "Her venerable ladyship, miss Winter Schnee." He said, drunk sarcasm dripping off of every word, "It's truly an honor for you to descend from your royal station to visit us _peasants_ who live in the grime down below. I'd offer to kiss your boot, but you'd probably find it revolting."

"Not for the reasons you're implying, Qrow." Winter answered with a steely glare.

Weiss bristled at Qrow's tone towards her sister. She knew that Ruby held Qrow in high regard, and enjoyed their time at the bar for JNPR's match, but that didn't excuse his current behavior, "How dare you speak to my sister like that! Do you have any idea who you're talking to?"

Qrow just laughed, "Pipe down, buttercup, or I'll tell you some things about dear old sis that'll make your head spin."

The way Winter scowled at Qrow told Ruby that her uncle wasn't bluffing. She glanced from one adult to the other before slowly asking, "You two really do know each other, don't you?"

"Unfortunately." The two answered in near-perfect unison.

After witnessing Winter's cold, critical attitude for the last fifteen minutes, Ruby could see why her uncle might harbor a dislike for the Weiss's sister. However, she couldn't understand why Winter appeared to have a similar opinion of her super-cool and totally badass uncle.

"Why is it unfortunate?" She asked.

Winter and Qrow shared a loaded glance, and Ruby's psionic talents were picking up some unrecognizable surface emotions from the two of them. However, she felt that it would be best to not try and focus on the feeling. Some things were just better left alone. After a pause, they finally answered Ruby's question (again, in near-perfect unison), "Reasons."

"Oh." Ruby half-squeaked, "Okay, uhh… I guess we'll leave it at that. Or… y'know… something…" She trailed off.

Winter returned her attention to Qrow, "Why are you here, old man?"

"The same reason you are, unfortunately."

"Why did Ozpin think it was a good idea to send you to come fetch me?" She groaned, pinching the bridge of her nose.

Qrow shrugged, "He didn't. I saw your gaudy ship parading around in the evening sky and thought that Her Royal Schnee-ness deserved a proper welcome to Vale."

"My sister was handling that job just fine, thank you." She answered through gritted teeth, "So why don't you run off and inform your master that I'll be there shortly?"

Rage. That was definitely an emotion that Ruby recognized, and it flickered to the surface of her uncle's mind for a fraction of a second. Not that Ruby needed supernatural powers to tell that Winter's jab struck a chord with Qrow. She saw fury dance in his eyes and honestly thought that he'd start dueling Winter in the middle of the street. As soon as it bubbled up, however, the rage subsided, and a smirk found its way onto Qrow's face.

"On the contrary, Peasantville is a dangerous place, Your Highness. We wouldn't want you to get any blood on your shoes if some vagabond tried to rob you. I think it would be best if I personally escorted you to the safety of my… _master's_ office."

"Seriously," Weiss whispered to Ruby, "What's the deal between the two of them?"

"I don't know." Ruby whispered back, "I've seen Qrow get snarky with my dad before, but never like this. I'm kinda curious, but my survival instincts are telling me to stay out of it. Let's just get to Ozpin's office, yeah? I've got a feeling he's dealt with this before."

Weiss nodded, "Okay. That sounds like a good idea."

* * *

"Ah, Miss Schnee. It's good of you to come on such short notice." Ozpin greeted, standing up from his seat as the four newcomers filed in. He frowned slightly as he saw Qrow bring up the rear, "I trust that Mister Branwen behaved himself during introductions."

Ruby and Weiss shared a look.

 _Told you._

"Only in the loosest sense of the word, sir." Winter answered. Indeed, the remainder of the walk was awkward enough to the point where Ruby was determined to ask her uncle about his history with Weiss's sister the next time the two of them were alone. She didn't care if he tried to give her the runaround, this was something that Ruby felt she needed to have sorted out, given the fact that she would be spending the foreseeable future as Weiss's partner.

Ruby looked around the room and saw two other figures with the headmaster: Bradford and someone she didn't recognize. The stranger was dressed in a very smart military outfit and carried himself with an air of authority, so Ruby had a general idea of his importance. Winter seemed to know him, and snapped a salute when they made eye contact, "General Ironwood, sir."

"At ease, Schnee." Ironwood answered, "Ozpin here just finished introducing me to the Captain of his Valean Recon Division."

From the moment that Ozpin greeted Winter, Bradford hadn't stopped glancing between Winter and Weiss with a look of analytical interested on his face. When Winter turned her attention to Bradford, the Central Officer nodded at her, "Winter Schnee… your sister speaks quite highly of you."

"I should hope so." Winter answered evenly, and Ruby wondered if she was used to compliments thrown her way, "You are the one who took care of my sister for the past several weeks, correct?"

Bradford nodded, "Though at times it seemed like she and her team were the ones taking care of me. Even if the circumstances of our cooperation were rather unfortunate, I am honored to have had the chance to work with Weiss, Ruby, and their friends."

"Well said, Captain." Ozpin cut in, "Though now that we're all here, perhaps we should proceed?"

"We should." Bradford agreed, "You've caught me at a busy time, sir, so my time is unfortunately limited. However, it would have been rude of me to turn down a meeting like this. I am ready to move forward with whatever you had in mind."

The Atlesian General cleared his throat, "With respect, Ozpin, we were waiting for Qrow and Schnee before we began." He glanced at Ruby, "Not these students."

Ozpin gave Ironwood a curious look, almost as if he was considering whether it was worthing arguing with him or not. After making up his mind, he nodded and turned to Ruby and Weiss, "It is true that I told my colleague to expect only Schnee and Bradford as guests tonight. The _elder_ Schnee." He corrected, his eye twinkling in amusement as he saw Ruby open her mouth, "While I think the two of you are more than capable of handling the nature of our meeting in a mature and professional manner, I feel that we must respect the terms of my agreement with Ironwood and request that you take your leave for now."

Weiss bowed, "Of course. Clearly, this is an important matter that is international in nature. Since peace and goodwill between Atlas and Vale is in everyone's best interest, we will gladly do as you ask and wish you farewell."

"Your attitude is appreciated, miss Schnee." Ironwood said, "You are a credit to your family's name."

Ruby noticed Weiss flinch almost imperceptibly at the General's compliment. She recovered quickly enough and turned to her sister, "You'll come see me after you're done, won't you? It's been so long, and I'm sure we have lots to talk about."

Winter offered her sister a warm smile, "Of course."

Ruby and Weiss left without another (spoken) word.

 _You really need to work on the way you speak. Your 'Princess Know-It-All' dialect is a bit rusty._

Weiss glared at Ruby as the younger huntress shared a fist bump with her uncle on the way to the elevator. After the room quieted down again, Qrow shoved off from his post and wandered towards the other four.

"Well, now that the kiddos have gone to bed… shall we?"

Winter rolled her eyes, "While I wouldn't have put it quite like that… what is it you wanted to tell us, Ozpin?"

Ozpin shook his head, "Not tell you. Show you. One of Remnant's most guarded secrets. But first… what is your favorite fairy tale?"

* * *

Stuffed into an elevator with Ozpin, Ironwood, Qrow, and Winter, Bradford found himself wondering just how far down the damn thing needed to go as the party was forced to wait patiently for the cable car to come to a halt. The conversation Winter had with Ozpin certainly kept Bradford's attention, and this story of the four Maidens carried a lot of concerning implications if the headmaster was speaking truthfully (and Bradford had no doubt that he was). And while he had little trouble taking the news himself, given that he was both a visitor to this world and a veteran of a war that introduced him to far stranger and more terrifying truths, he noticed that Winter looked slightly rattled. After a few moments of silence, he weighed the choice between letting her introspect on Ozpin's words and chatting her up to keep her mind off of things until they learned more. The second choice quickly won out.

"I'm curious, how is your relationship with Weiss?"

Winter raised an eyebrow, "What do you mean?"

"Don't get me wrong, she's only had good things to say about you on the several instances that your name came up." Bradford quickly said, "But it always seemed to have an air of respect that would be more appropriate if one was talking about a superior officer rather than a sister."

"I've known you for less than ten minutes, and you're already prying into my personal life." The elder Schnee commented dryly.

Bradford shrugged, "You're not obligated to tell me anything. Your sister is truly an awe-inspiring young woman, and given how she holds you in the highest esteem… I was just curious. I apologize if I overstepped my bounds."

"You did." She answered simply.

Right. Military professional, currently attending an important briefing with her superior officer. Bradford mentally kicked himself for trying to be friendly instead of focusing strictly on business. Seemed like his time with Ruby had made him soft.

The elevator came to a stop and the doors opened into a vast, dimly lit hallway. Bradford stepped out and glanced at Qrow, who gave him a ' _Yeah, she's kind of a bitch._ ' look before shuffling past the Central Officer with his hands stuffed into his pockets. Winter hung back with Ironwood while Ozpin followed after Qrow, and Bradford thought it would be best to walk with the headmaster and get back into the habit of focusing on matters at hand rather than trying to be friends with everyone on Remnant (even if they're related to one of his top operatives)..

"Looks like you could store a lot down here." He observed.

"I can." Ozpin agreed, "Though I mostly use it when I need time alone to reflect on things."

Bradford could respect that. He recalled more than one occasion during the war where he would join the skeleton crew working the graveyard shift at Mission Control when he found himself unable to sleep. The humming of the databanks, the occasional operator responding to a call, the hologlobe as it lazily twirled in the middle of the room, all of it was rather calming for Bradford as he silently stood watch from his usual station in the room. Nobody bothered him, and just like Ozpin with his basement of dimly-lit hallways, it gave Bradford time to think.

Rather than continue talking with Ozpin, Bradford found himself looking more closely at the hallways. The low lighting prevented him from actually seeing much of their contents, but his musings about his own methods of personal reflection caused Bradford to just let his own mind wander as he idly considered what sort of secrets this subterranean labyrinth held.

"We've arrived." The headmaster said, pulling the Central Officer out of his thoughts. He stepped aside so that his two guests could get a clear view of what waited at the end of the hallway. Amid an array of complex equipment (which Vahlen would _kill_ to examine, Bradford mused) stood a sealed chamber, and a woman lay unconscious and unmoving within.

"One of the maidens?" Bradford asked, assuming this field trip had something to do with the story Ozpin told in his office.

"The current Fall maiden." Ozpin answered, "Or at least… part of her."

"Beg your pardon?"

Qrow sighed and answered for the headmaster, "She was attacked by an unknown assailant… and had part of her powers stolen."

"Attacked?" Bradford repeated, shooting a meaningful look at Ozpin, silently asking, ' _The same assailant that attacked the CCT?_ "

Bradford suspected that Ozpin didn't actually know, but it seemed like too much of a coincidence to simply be brushed off. Qrow nodded, "While she was traveling yes. I was supposed to be escorting her, but… Amber seemed to enjoy making a habit out of trying to lose me on the road."

"Perhaps she didn't enjoy walking with a cocky jackass?" Winter jabbed. Bradford was mildly surprised that she would let her professionalism slip in front of Ironwood (who she clearly admired). The tension he felt when the two first entered Ozpin's office clearly ran far deeper than a mild rivalry.

Qrow gave her a dangerous look, "By the time I reached Amber, her assailants had almost finished their execution. My charge was literally on death's door. I never even had a chance to get a look at the bastards, and it was all I could do to save her life." He gestured at the high-tech coffin, "What's left of it, anyway."

Winter didn't have a response to that.

"What's important is that you did save her, Qrow, and that we have a chance to prevent a bad situation from getting worse." Ozpin said, and he gestured behind him. Across from Amber's cell stood another one, but empty.

As Bradford examined the equipment for a second time, he noticed that both chambers had wiring and hoses that fed into the central hub of controls, and he felt the hairs begin to stand up on the back of his neck. The parallels between this setup and XCOM's psionics or genetics labs took on an almost sinister turn. Rather than trying to infuse additional power into an operative by unlocking their innate potential or grafting them with meld… another human was the source material this time.

He knew that XCOM wasn't exactly a paragon of moral decisions, either. Some of the stuff that he, Vahlen, and Shen had to do, the war crimes they effectively committed… if life on Earth as they knew it wasn't in jeopardy, he was certain the Council would be a lot more forceful in their efforts to bring him back in line. However, Bradford recalled hearing someone once say, "When faced with extinction, every alternative is preferable." It made sense in the context of aliens wiping out all life on Earth, but…

Did Ozpin think Remnant's situation was equally dire?

Bradford decided it would be better to hold off on judgment until his new friends had a chance to explain more, "Well this looks ominous."

"It does." Ozpin nodded, "But time is running out and we're left with little else in the way of options."

Winter seemed to be picking up on the implications as well, "Would she even survive?"

"We don't know, but it's a chance that we are forced to take." Ironwood answered.

Qrow raised an eyebrow, "Isn't that a little misleading, Jimmy?" He turned to the confused Winter, "With your boss's 'amazing' Atlesian technology, Amber's Aura would be pulled out of her body and stuffed into whoever agreed to the transfer."

Okay, _that_ sounded bad. Wouldn't that effectively be murder? Or would Amber still be 'alive' alongside her new host? Sure, XCOM dallied with shoving alien organs into its operatives, or cutting off their limbs, or poking around in their brains, but this was an entirely new level of fucked up.

"It's bad out there, isn't it?" He asked.

Ironwood gave him a funny look, "You're the Captain of the _Recon_ division. Why don't you tell us?"

"Back off, Jimmy." Qrow said, eyes narrowed, "The shit Brad was dealing with is a whole different can of worms than the intel I've been gathering for this little party. Just because he's doing good work for us doesn't mean he knows everything."

"So who do you have in mind for the new host?" Winter asked, moving the conversation along.

Ozpin shook his head, "We… haven't come to a decision yet. I have several candidates in mind, but it's not easy asking someone to undergo a procedure that may very well change them on a fundamental level."

"What age or maturity range are you looking at?" Bradford asked.

Ozpin and Ironwood shared a look before the former answered, "We're looking at… students, Captain."

Oh. Suddenly, it made a lot more sense why Ozpin seemed so keen on getting RWBY and JNPR back on Remnant before the Vytal Festival. This whole situation just turned messy. _Really_ messy. Then again, it sounded like Ozpin's predecessors had been handling this maiden business for countless years through Remnant's history. Given that the old man certainly knew more than he was revealing, perhaps there was a set of rules that needed to be followed in the selection of a new maiden? It didn't help Bradford feel any less uneasy.

"Well… shit."

"Sounds like you're starting to appreciate our predicament, Brad." Qrow smirked.

"I… yeah, you could say that." Bradford shook his head, "So do you have _any_ idea who you're going to select? I would imagine there'd be contention between kingdoms about where the next maiden comes from."

"Not quite." Ozpin answered, "For as long as we've known, the maiden powers are very particular about following a set of strict rules, which happens to include their host's origin. The spirit of Summer, for example, always resides in Vacuo, and Spring goes to a maiden of Mistral."

Bradford glanced at Winter with a raised eyebrow, "Which season does Atlas have?"

Winter eyes widened, as if she was realizing for the first time the truth about her name. Ironwood sighed, "As I'm sure you know, Winter, your father is rather… prideful. To an almost flawed extent."

"Oh believe me, I know." She answered, though she rubbed her arms in discomfort, and Bradford could only imagine what she was thinking about right now.

"So it's to be a student from Vale, then." Bradford surmised, "Is the tournament supposed to be a metric to help you decide who is 'worthy' of selection, or do you have another method?"

"The timing of the Vytal Festival and this crisis is a coincidence, Captain. Maidens don't die every two years in time for a formalized selection process." Ozpin answered.

Or is it a coincidence? This situation seemed to be getting worse the more Bradford heard about it.

"So why tell us about this?" Winter asked, "It sounds like you're trying to keep this issue a secret, so why risk telling two more people about it?"

"I share your exact feelings on the matter, Schnee, believe me." Ironwood said.

Ozpin rubbed the bridge of his nose in mild annoyance at his colleague, "While keeping this secret under wraps is important, it is equally important that the situation doesn't _worsen_. Amber's assailant is still unaccounted for, and we have reason to believe that the Vytal Festival is being watched. Closely."

So he does suspect that the maiden's attacker and the CCT's infiltrator are one and the same. Good.

"Both you and the Captain are skilled specialists." Ozpin continued, looking between Bradford and Winter, "If we were to reveal this crisis to anyone, it would be you two. I implore you to guard the secret well, but to also be mindful of what we've told you as you go about your daily business. If you uncover something, anything that would be of use to this issue, please don't hesitate to bring the matter to our attention."

Silence fell among the group as Winter and Bradford digested the news while the other three waited for them to organize their thoughts. Eventually, Bradford spoke, "Will that be all, sir?"

Ozpin nodded, "For now, yes. Let us be on our way. I believe the General has a tournament to run."

* * *

Under the twinkling stars and the city lamplights, Ruby walked down the streets of Vale with Penny in tow.

"Sorry we didn't have a chance to really hang out earlier." Ruby apologized, "First there was the whole training thing I had already agreed to, and then Weiss found out at the last minute that her sister was arriving. Then she wanted to have us escort us to Ozpin's office, and-"

Penny's giggling cut her friend off, "It's quite alright, Ruby! I'm just glad to know that you are doing well. I was so worried after you disappeared for three weeks, but Ozpin said that you were alright."

"You talked to Ozpin?" Ruby asked with a curious glance.

"I was very, very worried!" Penny repeated, "When I found out that you were away on a very dangerous mission, I told him I wished there was some way I could help. And the very next day, I get summoned by my father to undergo a procedure that resulted in a temporary copy of my digital ego!"

That was Penny's idea? Ruby wondered if Penny realized just how big of an impact she made with the help of her replica, though the word 'temporary' was not lost on the young huntress. She didn't want to bring that up now, though. If XCOM's Penny was adamant about recombination after the tournament, Ruby was pretty sure that Remnant's Penny felt the same way.

Ruby chose to go with a happier tone and flashed her friend a smile, "Well, it's hard to fully describe just how helpful you were, Penny. It was great to have you there, even if it wasn't… well… _you_ who was there. But it was, just…" Ruby laughed as she stumbled over her words, "You know what I mean."

The two continued to walk in amiable silence for a little ways, content to have each other for company. With the Vytal Festival in town, the city saw a lot more activity at this hour than it usually did. After the fairgrounds close for the evening, the revelers move their festivities to the city proper and the restaurants and bars become busy with all the extra foot traffic. More than once, the duo had to stop when a young child walking with their parents recognized Ruby and asked for either a photograph or a signature. Ruby wasn't sure how the chicken scratch that was her handwriting could be enough, but the kids would practically skip back to their parents after she handed back the poster or flyer with her name on it.

"Didn't think I was this popular." She mumbled after the third stop, "I was honestly kinda embarrassed in my team's performance."

"Why is that?" Penny asked, confused.

Ruby shifted uncomfortably, even though her friend showed no sign of judgment or condescension, "Well, we were… harsh, in case you missed it. It's a tournament meant to foster friendly competition between schools and kingdoms. From watching our match, you'd think it was a cutthroat fight club."

"Oh, I don't know about that." Penny chirped, "You didn't kill anyone in your fight, right? I think that would be considered harsh. Beating your friendly opponents by a lot is not so bad."

If she could count on anybody to be endlessly optimistic, Ruby thought, Penny would be it.

"You're a good friend, Penny." Ruby said.

Penny smiled brightly, "I am very glad you think so! If there is anything you want to tell me that would help you feel better, please do not hesitate. It would be my pleasure to be supportive for my best friend."

Ruby looked up, a wistful smile matching Penny's cheerful one, "That… means a lot. The last few weeks have been pretty rough, even with my team there to support me. It's good to be back, and it's even better to see you again."

"Was it really that bad?" Penny asked, her face becoming more serious, "Ozpin told me you were on a dangerous mission, but he politely said that he couldn't say more than that."

How much should she say? Bradford had clearly briefed them all on the cover story if they were questioned, but… volunteering information? Even so, she felt like Penny deserved to know at least something. Despite not personally being at XCOM with RWBY and JNPR, she contributed to their success in a big way, "It was pretty bad. We made a mistake early on, and the Grimm cut off our access to Vale. We eventually got communications working again, but it took another week before we could safely extract and leave that whole mess behind. A lot of people died while we were trapped… some of them were because of mistakes I made."

Penny's eyes grew wide, but she said nothing. What could she say? Ruby pushed on, "I took it pretty hard when it happened, but I've learned to make the most of it. Knowing that those people didn't die in vain really helped me feel better about the whole thing, but the hardest part was telling myself to learn from their sacrifice and make sure that nobody else would die because of the same mistakes." Ruby spotted a bench up ahead, and the two huntresses took a seat and watched the energetic tourists explore the streets of Vale, "I don't know about you, Penny, but I've been pretty lucky my entire life. Sure, my mom died while away on a mission, but I never had to actually _see_ someone… pass on."

More like die gurgling on their own blood as a plasma bolt tore their throat open. Or fall lifelessly to their knees after a shot from a Sectopod punched clean through their chest. Or shuffle back to 'life' for a few horrifying minutes while a nascent Chryssalid was busy eating its way out through the abdomen. Or-

"I'm sorry you had to see that, Ruby." Penny said softly, interrupting Ruby's spiraling thoughts, "I… I didn't realize that my question would bring up such bad memories."

But they weren't all bad memories. The people she met, both XCOM and civilian alike, were exemplars the human spirit in the face of adversity. The iron will of her comrades-in-arms, their refusal to give up against impossible odds, and especially their willingness to stare down almost certain death because _somebody_ had to… it all inspired Ruby. Even when they laid down their lives in the line of duty, it wasn't because they gave up against an unbeatable foe. Rather, they did so willingly because they knew that if that's what it took to stop the aliens, the choice became a no-brainer.

There were plenty of fun memories as well. All of the shenanigans MacAuley cooked up in the Anthill, Weiss's ice skating surprise after their Aura was restored, spending countless hours with Doctor Shen in Engineering cooking up the latest technological improvement, and so many others. Ruby had heard so many times that the strongest bonds were forged in the fires of combat, but the ones she developed in the safety of XCOM's base were just as powerful. She'd only spent nine months with these people, but she couldn't imagine a life without them now that she reflected on her experiences.

"On the contrary, you've reminded me that for every bad memory I picked up in that awful place, there is a good one that comes with it." She stood up, dusted herself off, and smiled, genuinely smiled, at Penny, "I can't wait for the day you get to meet the rest of the friends I made with the Valean Recon Division. If I had to do it all over again, I think I would keep everything exactly the same. These people are truly worth it."

* * *

" _Welcome back, Miss Nikos!_ "

Penny performed her customary airflip greeting as Pyrrha stepped through the portal. The crimson-haired huntress returned the warm welcome with a smile and a wave, "Hello again, Penny. I see you have some friends with you. Hello, Gidjit."

" _GREETINGS, FRIEND NIKOS._ "

That took Pyrrha slightly by surprise, but she noticed a third member of the welcoming committee whose face she didn't recognize. As it would be rude to question Gidjit on his newfound voice and ignore the newcomer, she strode over towards the young woman and held out her hand, "My name is Pyrrha Nikos. I don't believe we've met."

The teenager, who had been staring at the fully-armed warrior before her with wide eyes full of wonder, realized that she was being addressed directly by the subject of her fascination. She hesitantly reached for Pyrrha's hand and shook it while mumbling, "Lily Shen. Are you one of… you know…?"

"Penny's friends?" Pyrrha supplied. Lily nodded, and Pyrrha's smile brightened, "Indeed I am. And, might I add, one of your father's as well."

"Dad's told me stories about you guys…" Lily said, her eyes examining every inch of Pyrrha's attire, "He said you were like brightly-colored fighters straight out of one of my tabletop games. I thought he was exaggerating like he usually does with his stories, but… you're the real deal, aren't you?"

Pyrrha nodded, "We're trained to fight from a young age. We discover a weapon that resonates with us and learn how to use it in such a way that it almost becomes an extension of our body. A conduit of our will, I suppose."

Her hand glowed with a dark energy, and the small piece of scrap metal Lily had been fiddling with gently levitated in her hands and drifted towards Pyrrha, "Then there's Aura, the projection of our souls. Every huntsman is unique, and we learn to hone the power of our spirit to enhance our abilities in combat."

The scrap floated back into Lily's hands and Pyrrha started to walk out of the Hyperwave facility (waving to the technician on staff as she passed). Lily stuck to her like glue while Penny and Gidjit lazily floated after them.

"Our powers are great," Pyrrha continued, "But only because our enemies are greater."

"The Grimm" Lily said.

Pyrrha nodded, "The Grimm. I am deeply sorry that Earth has to suffer the presence of this soulless evil, but I am sure that the great nations of this world will prevail. Even so, imagine a world where mankind has been backed into a few small corners because the Grimm are so vast in number that we are unable to hold onto much more than what little land we presently have. _That_ is the threat that huntsmen such as myself train to fight against. It is a daunting task, but a noble one. It's the only life I can imagine myself living."

They walked in silence while Lily chewed on Pyrrha's words while Penny and Gidjit undoubtedly held a digital, silent conversation behind them. The young girl fiddled with the metal in her hands as Pyrrha continued on towards her destination.

"I wish I could be a hero like you." Lily sighed, "Dad was adamant that I stay home during the war and continue my education. Even with aliens trying to take over the world, I had to pretend nothing was wrong and learn about physics and language arts. Felt pretty useless."

Pyrrha glanced down at her companion, "There is power in knowledge, Lily. The stories your father told you about our fantastic abilities would not have been possible without his efforts in engineering and Dr. Vahlen's efforts in research. Our Auras were suppressed when we first arrived, and the only way we could reach our full potential was through their tireless efforts to understand the science behind the magic and develop a countermeasure to the suppression. Your father would likely struggle to pick up a Blaster Launcher, and yet any Rocketeer, Sniper, or Scout would readily agree that he did far more than his fair share in the fight to save humanity."

" _I wouldn't be here if it weren't for Doctor Shen!_ " Penny cheerfully added.

Pyrrha could tell that Lily couldn't think of a counter to that, even though she could tell that her companion clearly wanted to. It made sense, in a way: while the war effort would have stalled out and died long ago without the scientists and engineers working behind the curtain, Pyrrha knew that the glory of the battlefield captured people's attention moreso than the seemingly mundane efforts of XCOM's non-combat personnel.

"If it's any consolation, I'm actually here to help train a good friend of mine how to fight like a huntress. We won't be having any grand battles like you're probably imagining, but I wouldn't mind if you decided to come and watch while we work."

Lily's eyes grew wide, just as they did when Pyrrha first stepped through the relay, "Really?"

They arrived in front of a door as Pyrrha nodded, "Really." She turned to Penny and Gidjit, "Will you two be joining us as well?"

" _Unfortunately not. As much as I would love to watch you teach Major Durand, Gidjit and I have some work to do down in Engineering._ "

"Oh?"

" _IMPORTANT WORK. UPGRADES FOR THE ODIN._ "

Pyrrha looked at Gidjit, "Well, judging by your voice, it sounds like you two have been busy with important work for a while now. It's good to see that you're settling in."

" _IT IS GOOD._ "

"… _We're still working on his linguistic skills._ " Penny said, " _Though it's not a particularly high priority._ "

Pyrrha laughed, "Don't worry about it. I can understand Gidjit just fine. You two have fun with Doctor Shen. I'll do my best to look after his daughter."

"As if I need looking after." Lily grumbled.

The mechs floated off down the hall, and Pyrrha opened the door and poked her head inside. Sitting with her back facing the Temple Ship's mighty Elerium reactor, Annette patiently kneeled with La Volonté resting before her. She opened her eyes at the sound of Pyrrha's approach, and they held the faint, familiar glow of spectral power. Lily hung back while Pyrrha stepped forward into the empty space of the room, sword and shield at the ready. Annette grabbed her own weapon, stood up, and bowed slightly.

"Thank you for coming."

"It's my pleasure." Pyrrha said cheerfully, "Shall we begin?"


	10. Run and Gun

A/N: So, uh... lots of interesting lore things happened over these last two weeks. The World of Remnant series for each kingdom was _amazing_ , and I'm looking forward to writing XCOM's travels throughout Remnant with more confidence now that I won't be bullshitting the social and political atmosphere of the other kingdoms. Jury's still out on Salem's Evil League of Evil, though. With the framework that I already have set up, I'm not sure how I would include them yet. There's a good chance that I'll come up with something before it becomes relevant, though, so we'll see what happens.

Quick note that relates to my project of taking in feedback from readers and retroactively making adjustments to previous chapters: several people were either confused or unimpressed with how Emerald could somehow tell Ruby was reading her. It's partly my fault for not explicitly explaining it in the story, but I've also been convinced that the justification I had (which revolved around the idea that she had a mentor during her time as a street rat that helped her with her semblance and learn about mental tomfoolery), was rather weak. So when I have time, I'll be going back and making a modification to that. The new plan is that the nature of Emerald's semblance causes it to 'react' to other abilities that affect the mind. It's simple, doesn't add unnecessary clutter to Emerald's backstory, and solves the issue nicely.

As for this chapter, y'all get a healthy serving of combat as well as my favorite meta joke thus far. I have no doubt that you will all be able to find it immediately.

* * *

"Food poisoning, huh?" The jazz player asked, cocking an eyebrow.

Blake shrugged, "Happens sometimes."

"To two people? At the same time?"

"Well, they were making plans for this match over dinner last night, so… kiiiiinda more likely than you'd think." Ruby added.

Flynt sighed, "Damn… I was looking forward to taking down a Schnee."

The musician and the rollerblader exchanged looks, causing Ruby and Blake to do the same. It sounded like their opponents were expecting to fight against Weiss and Yang, so was Emerald really involved in something more nefarious than scouting the competition? But Annette couldn't read anything off of her yesterday, which seemed almost impossible given her psionic aptitude. Or maybe Flynt Coal really just had some beef with Weiss's family and got excited when he saw 'Schnee' on the Doubles bracket. In hindsight, Ruby's plan to secretly switch out players for the second round didn't really seem to accomplish anything.

In any case, the last-minute change likely threw off their opponents' mental game, which could serve as an exploitable advantage for Ruby and Blake. Even better, Ruby had to restrain giggles of happiness when "burned-out city" popped up as one of the randomly-selected environment for the match. She highly doubted that _anyone_ at the tournament had more experience with urban combat than RWBY or JNPR.

 _Time for a game of hide-and-seek?_

Blake looked over at Ruby, smirked, and nodded.

" _Three… Two… One… BEGIN!_ "

Ruby felt very happy with their chosen plan the moment the match started, as a swift retreat meant getting as far away as possible from the god-awful trumpeting coming from Flynt. While the other one, Neon, moved pretty quickly on her skates, she couldn't hold a candle to Ruby's semblance. Blake took advantage of the grappling capability of Gambol Shroud to tether herself to a shattered tower and hook herself around to safety.

" _That's the second time that Team RWBY has elected to run for cover instead of facing their opponents head-on!_ " Oobleck noted.

" _Well, I know they definitely didn't pick up that habit from me._ " Port said, " _C'mon, ladies! Give them a taste of Valean mettle!_ "

* * *

"It appears your leader was serious during our conversation of battle tactics." Winter mused. She watched the start of the match with Weiss, Yang, and their friends in the stadium seating of the Colosseum. While the Atlesian Specialist would ordinarily prefer to enjoy the entertainment at a more… comfortable venue, Weiss's look of excitement when she made the suggestion didn't escape Winter's notice. In the back of her mind, she couldn't help but think about the comment from that Valean Captain about her relationship with her sister. She would never vocally admit it, but Winter always had trouble interacting with Weiss. She attributed it to the strict upbringing imposed by their father and the burden of success he expected out of his heirs, but that didn't change the facts of the situation.

So here she sat with the noisy crowds, her sister, that godawful Qrow's niece and her dog, as well as the… diverse personalities of JNPR.

"She may be an awkward doofus in social setting," Weiss said, "But she is completely focused when the fighting starts."

"It's rather inspiring, quite honestly. She carries herself with an air of pride and dignity on the battlefield." Pyrrha agreed.

Winter hummed. While she still strongly disagreed with Ruby's chosen tactics, it was clear that the young team leader did something right to win the hearts and minds of her compatriots.

"I suppose we'll have to see how the battle turns out to decide whether pride and dignity are enough." She answered.

Yang laughed and kicked her feet up onto the seat below her, "As if there was ever a question about my sister's victory in this matchup. No offense to Atlas, but FNKI has a snowball's chance in Vacuo of winning this one."

"None taken." Winter gritted.

* * *

Ruby raced over to some toppled cinder blocks and unfolded Crescent Rose. She watched as Blake rounded the corner of her tower before dropping a shadow clone and activating her Ghost module. The clone wasn't strictly necessary, but it helped keep up the illusion that invisibility was the next 'evolution' of her semblance, which (ideally) stopped anyone from the crowd thinking too deeply about how it worked. Not far behind, Neon zipped into the city square, desperately looking around to reacquire her target. A shot rang out and the skater nearly tripped from Ruby's direct hit to her center of mass.

The moment Neon locked eyes with Ruby, Blake reappeared behind her and performed a swift double strike with her blade and sheath.

"Gah!" Neon spun around to focus on her more immediate concern, and Ruby let loose a parting shot before packing up and speeding off again to find another vantage point. She missed the luxury of Weiss's glyphs, but months of running around burned out towns and shattered cities still helped her easily navigate the landscape.

Without the advantage of her momentum, Neon struggled to keep up with the agile blows Blake rained down from all sides. Her nunchaku provided a whirling defense to deflect the worst of her opponent's attacks, but Neon's Aura was definitely dropping faster than Blake's. Before the beating got too bad, however, Flynt finally caught up to support his teammate. The sonic blast he fired from his trumpet not only knocked Blake away, but also put some wind back in Neon's metaphorical sails. Blake, however, had no intention of fighting both opponents at once, and so she hooked Gambol Shroud into another piece of concrete and started to beat a hasty retreat.

"Not so fast!" Flynt called out, readying his weapon to pin down Blake and stop her escape. Before he could so much as fire a single note, however, a barrage of Dust rounds from above forced him to duck for cover. Neon growled in annoyance at the slippery sniper.

"Deal with Shadow Girl, Flynt. I'll bring Miss Zippy down a peg."

With an adrenaline-fueled burst of speed, she left to catch up with her prey. Flynt could handle the ninja. Probably.

Blake watched unseen from above after Ruby's distraction provided her with the opportunity to once again vanish into thin air. She waited until the enemy separated once more before preparing for her retaliatory strike. A few more seconds passed to make sure that Neon had well and truly split up with Flynt before she silently crept up on the musician. Aware that his foe had likely pulled another vanishing trick, the huntsman carefully backed himself into a corner between a shattered wall and a massive slab of concrete. Blake noticed that his eyes remained alert and the hairs stood up on the back of his neck. Easy pickings. She leapt from her perch, sword raised over her head…

And he rolled out of the way.

Blake only had a moment to wonder what happened before Flynt's cacophonous attack blasted her back. Where moments ago she silently mocked Flynt for letting himself get backed into a corner, Blake found herself pressed against the very same wall due to the huntsman's sonic assault.

" _An astonishing turn of events!_ " Port bellowed, " _How_ did _mister Coal manage to predict when his foe would strike?_ "

"Not so hot anymore, are you?" The musician called out between blasts, "Don't seem to put up much of a fight without your friend around."

Blake grunted, trying to shield her face from the attack with her arms. Over the near-deafening noise of her opponent, she could barely make out the sound of Ruby's rifle going off. Either she was still happily running rings around Neon and keeping one step ahead of her, or the Atlesian huntress finally managed to close the gap and tie her up in melee combat. Ruby wouldn't be able to come to Blake's rescue if that was the case, and Blake was certainly in no position to bail out Ruby.

But she couldn't let Flynt know that.

"That's where you're wrong." She answered, stealing a glance at her opponent during particularly long lull in the trumpet attacks. To her shock, she saw four targets instead of just one. Her eyes widened, and she tried to make a break for safety, but the musician proved to be too fast. With the powerful airwaves coming from four angles at once, Blake started to feel the pressure taking a toll on her Aura.

* * *

"If they'd chosen a direct approach, this split wouldn't have happened." Winter observed, "Coal is proving himself to be very effective at keeping a target in lockdown, but he leaves himself completely exposed in the process. Even with his… associate trying to defend him, there's no way she could stop Rose from striking and disrupting the attack."

Nora snorted, "You would _think_ that, but Blake is really just luring the dude into a false sense of security. She's got eeeeeverything under control, you just watch."

"I am watching. And so far, I'm unimpressed."

"Eh, no plan survives first contact with the enemy." Yang defended, "You can't always have lady luck on your side, and so you just have to learn to roll with the punches and figure out how to work with what you've got. Blake's a smart kid. She'll be fine."

Even so, nobody could deny the fact that the scoreboard showed Blake's Aura steadily dropping.

* * *

"I'm wrong, am I?" Flynt asked with a laugh, "Because it looks like managed to pin you down pretty easily without your stupid sniper buddy."

Despite the problematic situation, Blake couldn't help but roll her eyes. Sure, her opponent had her locked down like a captive in Vahlen's containment unit, but even Flynt had to realize he was gloating far too soon. Hopefully not, though. As the sound waves continued to crash against her, Blake chose not to speak. Instead, she put all of her energy into outlasting Flynt's assault while trying to find a crack in his offense.

With the compressive force pushing on her from four different angles, however, that proved to be difficult. The outermost wave angles made lateral movement impossible, and Blake found herself incapable of overcoming the aerodynamic equilibrium of her prison by jumping vertically. As time wore on and her energy continued to flag, the likelihood of escaping under her own force dwindled.

That's when she heard it. Or rather, the lack of 'it': Crescent Rose. With her keen hearing, Blake managed to keep track of the second battle going on elsewhere in the arena thanks to the sounds of Ruby's gun and Neon's shouts of frustration. While the (ineffective) taunting persisted, Blake realized that she hadn't heard a shot from Crescent Rose in at least ten seconds. Given how much Ruby relied on her weapon's shot recoil to enhance her maneuverability and melee prowess, Blake highly doubted she was still engaged with Neon.

A sound almost as beautiful as a MEC charging up its Particle Beam, one that told her the cavalry had finally arrived. Above the awful noise of Flynt Coal's trumpeting, Blake heard Ruby chambering Crescent Rose.

"I honestly expected more out of you after your performance in the first round." Flynt taunted, "But it's all over now."

A single, high-caliber report rang out, and Blake grinned, "Yes, it is."

The sound registered for Flynt a moment too late. His quartet turned around just in time to see a red streak speeding down at them from above before Ruby crashed into the one-man musical act with a recoil-powered swipe of her scythe. The four Flynts slammed into the wall with a sickening _crunch_ before reforming into a single, dazed huntsman.

" _Oh, that's got to hurt!_ " Port cheerfully commentated, " _Could it be that mister Coal is down for the count?_ "

Rather than move in for the kill, Ruby focused on her teammate and pulled Blake to her feet, "You alright?"

"Yeah. He caught me off guard when he managed to dodge my knockout blow." Blake admitted.

"Well, you know what they say: the shot you miss will always be the one you're ninety-five percent certain will hit. I think MacAuley used to call it 'Bradford's Law' or something. C'mon, let's wrap things up. Skater Girl should be here any secon-"

"FLYNT!" The two huntresses winced at the shrill tone of Neon's shriek. The rollerblader came to a stop at the top of some ruined steps leading into the tower, glanced at her partner shakily getting back to his feet, then over at Ruby and Blake with narrowed eyes.

"Oh, you're gonna _pay_ for that." She growled before racing down the incline and towards her opponents at high speed. The two teammates shared a glance and a shrug before dropping into their combat stances and getting ready for a quick fight.

The scuffle, however, did not end quickly. Despite her (extremely) informal demeanor, Neon actually proved to be a competent huntress. She managed to keep both Ruby and Blake occupied long enough for Flynt to steady himself and pitch in as well.

"Gonna turn tail and run again?" Neon sneered, and Ruby wasn't sure if the jab was meant to be light-hearted or the huntress was genuinely upset at the number done on Flynt.

"… Sort of?" Ruby answered as she recoil-fired into a tactical retreat to improve her vantage point. She contemplated completely falling back with Blake to try and get the fight back on their terms, but a quick glance at the scoreboard showed that it would only take a few solid hits before Flynt's Aura would drop to the red zone. So long as she and Blake could outmaneuver their opponents in the urban environment, they should be fine.

Blake, for her part, had no intention of falling for Flynt's trap a second type. After she caught her breath during the brief respite, she never stopped moving as she ran circles around Flynt. She would occasionally peel off to quickly double-team Neon with Ruby whenever the opportunity arose, but Blake's main focus remained on her newfound nemesis. The musician managed to use the threat of his sonic cage to keep Blake at bay for now, but he looked increasingly off-balance as Blake flashed in and out of striking range at a dizzying rate. She considered taunting him with some variation of the words he had thrown at her, but decided against tempting fate.

While Blake put on an admirable performance flickering in and out of view around the wobbly Flynt, the battle between Ruby and Neon was the real show-stealer. The two of them almost seemed to flow across the ruined city, leaving a helix of rose petals and rainbows in their wake as they clashed time and again.

"You're pretty good on those skates." Ruby commented as Neon slid out of the way of another scythe swipe.

Neon's answer was full of faux cheer, "Better than you are with that big, bulky weapon, apparently!"

Ruby almost tripped, "Excuse me?"

"Yeah!" The other girl said, clearly encouraged by Ruby's reaction to her comment, "I'm surprised you can even swing that ugly hunk of metal around!"

* * *

Winter looked at her sister with some consternation when she noticed Weiss visibly shiver, "Is everything alright?"

Weiss nodded, though her eyes still betrayed her true feelings, "I just got a really bad feeling all of a sudden out of nowhere." She looked at Winter, "Have you ever had something like that?"

* * *

No more games. No more sportsmanship. If this kid had the nerve to mock Crescent Rose, then it was time to pull off the training wheels.

 _Blake, I'm gonna need your help with this one. Rainbow girl just insulted my baby. Do me a favor and wrap things up with Flynt._

Ruby hit the brakes hard and lined up her rifle while Neon continued to skate ahead. It only took a moment for the Atlesian huntress to notice Ruby's change in tactics, but that was all the time Ruby needed to lock in on her target. Crescent Rose bucked as she fired, and the bullet struck its target square in the chest and sent Neon reeling.

Ruby didn't wait for her target to stop rolling before giving chase. To Neon's credit, she had the wherewithal to realize that every second wasted was a second closer to imminent doom. She managed to pivot herself onto her feet and use the momentum of her fall to resume skating with some of the leftover speed. She looked back to check on her predator's progress, and Ruby gained immense satisfaction from seeing panic flash through her eyes for a brief moment. Pavement and concrete alike flew into the air as Ruby swung her scythe around to clear the path between herself and Neon.

" _SAY IT AGAIN!_ " She yelled.

Neon jumped as Crescent Rose came crashing down again, "I'm sorry!"

"You're goddamn right." Ruby muttered as she put on another burst of speed. The duo rounded the corner of another shattered building just in time to see Flynt fall backwards from an uppercut delivered by Gambol Shroud to his chest.

"Flynt, no!" Neon's cry didn't sound as angry as it did the first time. Now, it seemed more like she realized she poked the metaphorical sleeping bear a little too hard, and now her only ally had left her to fight for herself.

" _And that's the first casualty of match!_ " Oobleck announced, " _How well can miss Katt hold up against the combined assault of two of Vale's finest freshmen?_ "

Neon succeeded in pulling herself together for a time and put up an admirable defense. With a matchup between three huntresses that all relied heavily on mobility, the unfolding melee reminded Ruby of Vahlen's simulation videos showing atomic particles orbiting and smashing into each other at high velocities. Hit for hit, Ruby and Blake easily stayed ahead of their foe, but Neon's fluid defenses (and the occasional counterattack) helped her stay in the running for a lot longer than Ruby expected. Eventually, though, Neon's Aura dipped below the cutoff value after Blake caught her with a surprise low sweep that threw the rollerblader off her feet and into the path of Crescent Rose. The buzzer rang, the audience cheered, and Neon groaned.

" _Team RWBY is victorious!_ "

"Dammit…"

"Hey." She looked up to see Ruby and Blake standing over her, the former extending her hand out in a friendly gesture, "That was a really good match."

Neon looked at the hand in confusion. Were they gloating about their victory? But the smile on that Rose kid's face looked so genuine, Neon had a hard time believing there was anything sinister in her intentions. And with the stadium full of cheering people, that smile felt so damn infectious.

"Yeah," Neon answered, her face cracking into a grin as she took the offered hand, "I guess it was. Sorry about… uh… the whole scythe thing."

Ruby shrugged, "All's fair in love and war, or something like that. I figured that it's just a tactic you use to trip up your opponents, and you didn't really mean it. Besides, I think it's safe to say that it ended up backfiring on you, so I can't really complain."

"Yeah…" Flynt groaned as he started the process of picking himself up off the floor for the second time in five minutes, "Neon has a habit of running her mouth off like that. Gets her into trouble more often than not."

"I don't doubt it. Hopefully she's got the sense to know when it's best to keep that sort of talk under wraps, though." Blake said as the four of them made their way off of the arena floor.

"I'm _right here_ you know!"

* * *

After the match, Ruby and Blake met up with the rest of their team, JNPR, and Winter outside of the stadium and took a shuttle back down to Beacon's docks to kill some of their free time. Talos and Gizmo, next set of XCOM operatives on vacation/scouting detail, were already waiting for them at the fairgrounds. An additional component of their tour of duty on Remnant was a shakedown run of the new limbs Vahlen and Shen had developed for MEC operatives. After the resounding success of the limbs given to Blake and Yang, Vahlen assigned a small, post-war task force within R&D to improve on the design and roll it out for the rest of the MEC corp.

Ruby only knew about it when Pyrrha came back from her little training session with Annette and told her. Ever since Shen voiced his suspicions two days ago about the CCT being compromised, Bradford had become rather strict on communication protocols between Earth and Remnant. And then Ozpin must have revealed some pretty heavy information during his meeting with Central and Weiss's sister, because Bradford was even _more_ cagey when he and Winter left the building. While Weiss kept Winter busy with a conversation of their own, Bradford told Ruby that he was ordering a complete ranged communication lockdown until further notice. When he didn't laugh at Ruby's "what about close range?" joke, she knew something serious must have transpired. She also knew better than to ask, because Bradford would have certainly volunteered the information if he felt it was appropriate. While she didn't always like it, Ruby had come to realize that the chain of command existed for a reason.

Perhaps the most curious part of the present company, however, was the fact that Neon (and therefore by extension, Flynt) decided that RWBY was cool and effectively attached herself to their little party. Specifically, Blake.

"That's amazing that you came out just before the tournament! I mean, Flynt's a really cool guy so I never had any problems with being myself, but I'm sure that's not the case for everyone."

Blake looked up and wiggled her ears, "Yeah, I… used to have some pretty bad trust issues. Still do, probably, but I was never very good at being myself around other people. Didn't even tell my team about who I am until it came out by accident one night."

"Doesn't help that you literally have the heiress of the SDC as your teammate." Flynt commented, his eyes still glued to Weiss and Winter sitting at the other end of the cabin, "I bet that made things a _tad_ awkward."

"It did," Blake admitted, "But I've since come to realize that the fault doesn't lie with Weiss, not really. Growing up in that environment, what other kind of opinion could you reasonably expect for her to develop? I've had the chance to meet the real Weiss, just like she's had the chance to meet the real me. I think our cohesion on the battlefield speaks for itself."

Flynt leaned back in his seat. Though he seemed satisfied with Blake's answer, he still kept up his watch of the Schnee sisters, "Fair enough. Though you'll have to excuse me if I don't let things go so easily. I haven't had the chance to meet the 'real Weiss' yet."

"Hopefully you will in time." Blake answered.

Ruby glanced over at Weiss, who remained locked in conversation with her sister.

 _Everything alright? I know that you're not a fan of a guy like Flynt joining us for the ride down, but hopefully he's not putting a damper on your conversation with Winter._

Weiss caught Ruby's eye, gave her partner a subtle shake of the head 'no,' and turned back to Winter, "So how is the military life? I know I've never really asked you about it in the past, but the last couple of weeks have given me a new perspective."

"Ah yes, I suppose your time with Bradford's little militia would give you some respect for the military, wouldn't it?" Winter asked.

'You don't know the half of it,' Weiss thought, but she knew better than to be so callous with her sister, "It did impress upon me the importance of structured discipline, yes. Father's training was a good start, of course, but fighting with the Valeans was rather humbling, to be honest."

"Considering joining me as an Atlesian specialist?" Winter asked with a raised eyebrow.

Weiss immediately shook her head, "No, nothing like that. I just wanted to know if you're… you know… happy with it."

A strange question, in Winter's opinion, "I'm gratified, if that's what you mean. My work is meaningful and beneficial to my country, I am recognized for my talents by my superiors, and I get to travel the world. While I don't always get the luxury of associating with agreeable people, it is a small price to pay for performing my civic duty and making Atlas a better place.

"But what about you?" She asked, turning the conversation back onto Weiss, "Though your performance in your team's first match was far from perfect, it's obvious that you've made great strides in becoming a better huntress. I still think you would have excelled had you decided to train in Atlas, but there's no denying that your team is competent."

Upon hearing Winter's last comment, Yang scooted over a few seats from Blake's side and injected herself into the conversation, "Competent? More like 'totally kicking ass and taking names.' Right, Weiss?"

Weiss pinched her nose with an almost inaudible groan. Yang had to be doing this on purpose. She had to know that Winter already mildly disliked her on account of Yang's relation to Qrow, and her brash attitude wasn't doing anything to improve that opinion, "I wouldn't put it like that, Yang, but I am quite proud of how well we've been performing in the tournament, yes."

Yang pointed at Winter with a pair of finger guns and grinned, "Just you watch, we're gonna be the biggest, baddest team of huntsmen Remnant has ever known!"

"Like uncle, like niece," Winter muttered, just loud enough for Weiss to hear, "That sounds like quite a lofty goal you have, Xiao Long. Why don't you go tell it to your friends from JNPR?"

"Oh, they already know, because they're gonna be the _second_ biggest, baddest team of huntsmen Remnant has ever known." Yang said, winking at Weiss. That answered the question of whether she was intentionally antagonizing Winter or not, "But I get it. You kids have fun with your little two-person clique. Feel free to join the party whenever you like!"

 _I'd like to remind you that I cannot be held accountable for the actions of my sister._

Weiss sighed before returning her attention to Winter, "To answer your question, I am very happy with my team. Sure, it took some time to adjust-"

"I imagine Belladonna was quite a shock for you."

"… A bit." Weiss said, her eyes narrowing ever-so-slightly at the implication of her sister's words. While Winter wasn't wrong, Weiss didn't exactly enjoy remembering the way she used to think (and act) when she first started her career at Beacon, "But it might be a shock for _you_ to know that there's more to Blake than the ears on her head."

Winter decided to shelve that conversation, as she realized it wasn't going in any favorable direction, "How about your training? It looks like you've managed to learn the hardest component of our family's Semblance, which is quite a feat all on its own."

"Thank you." Weiss said, happy to receive Winter's compliment, "The first time wasn't easy, as I'm sure you can imagine. But my team was in some dire straits, so the summoning worked because it had to."

"Necessity is the mother of invention." Winter noted.

Weiss nodded in agreement, "Indeed. And after I managed to do it once, it became a little easier to do it again. I think the confidence I gained from knowing I'd already done it once was the key. After that, well…" The younger Schnee held out her hand, a glyph winked into existence, and a ghostly sparrow fluttered out of her palm.

"A bird?" Winter asked, eyebrow raised, "You… are aware that our Semblance only lets us manifest enemies we've bested in battle."

Weiss cast a sidelong glance at Ruby, who suppressed a bout of giggles, "It's a long story." She closed her palm, and the bird shattered and returned to the aether. The PA system rang quietly and informed the passengers that they would be arriving at the docks shortly.

* * *

"Gizmo!"

Nora ran forward and pulled the MEC pilot into a bear hug. Gizmo chuckled and returned the gesture, "Hey, kiddo. It's good to see you, too."

"Where's Jaune? Figured he'd be back by now after his… y'know…" Nora looked back at Winter, Neon, and Flynt stepping off of the shuttle before whispering, "Super-Secret-Annette-Training-Mission-of-Secrecy."

"Some trouble in the Balkans." Talos quietly answered from Gizmo's left, "Both Jaune and the boss-man thought it would be a good opportunity for the Major to get in some field experience with her new equipment."

The rest of the group arrived from the shuttle, and brief introductions took place. Neon and Flynt weren't familiar with the Valean Recon Division, so they simply smiled and exchanged names. Winter, however, looked over the two operatives with a slightly more critical eye.

"Surprised to see soldiers without armaments."

"Not our jurisdiction, ma'am." Gizmo said, "We've been briefed on the situation for the Vytal Festival, and that Atlas is overseeing the security operations. For all intents and purposes, we're civilians right now."

'Plus, there's the fact that recon operatives aren't supposed to stand out.' Ruby thought. Her assessment of Winter so far was… fair. Ruby knew that Weiss admired her, so she really didn't want to have a sour impression of the Atlesian 'Specialist' (whatever that meant). She wasn't a fan of Winter's habit of criticizing anything and everything, though, even if that could be attributed to her upbringing. Given how Weiss managed to lighten up after a few months at Beacon (and, subsequently, after half a year in a war zone), Ruby wondered if Winter's choice to remain in the militaristic environment of Atlas only served to reinforce the perfectionist attitude she'd developed during her childhood. Maybe that's why she didn't like Uncle Qrow.

In any case, Winter seemed to accept Gizmo's justification, "Even so, I'm sure it's difficult to turn off your training and observe your surroundings the way a civilian would. In the interest of maintaining good relations between your Recon unit and the Atlesian military, I hope you will be forthcoming with any information you discover while you enjoy the festival."

Talos nodded, "Absolutely. We've only got one planet, after all. The four kingdoms need to work together if we don't wish to become a bloody footnote in the history of Remnant."

"Well, if you don't mind, I would prefer to enjoy the fair in the company of my sister." Winter said, switching topics, "It's been… too long since I've had the chance to spend time with her, and I don't know when the opportunity will present itself again."

Ruby waved her off, "Of course, of course! Don't feel like you're obligated to hang around with us."

Winter gave Ruby a curious, almost amused look, "I didn't, but thank you anyway."

After Weiss left with Winter, the remaining huntsmen and operatives chatted on the docks for a few minutes before heading out to the fairgrounds themselves. As before with SSSN, various sub-conversations began to form between certain groups. Neon still remained attached at the hip to Blake, but Flynt had taken an interest in Pyrrha when he discovered that she managed to maintain a humble disposition despite the fame piled upon her. Nora stuck with Ren, naturally, and dragged him off to play some carnival games together. Ruby stayed with Yang, Talos, and Gizmo, and parted ways with Blake and Pyrrha's group to get something to drink. The moment they were alone, Ruby turned the subject to business.

"How are things with Central?"

"Good." Gizmo started, "Progress with Mac's project is coming along. It's little too slow for Bradford's tastes, but comm systems have always been a time-consuming process. Now that he's asking for one to be put up without pre-existing infrastructure to support it? Well, let's just say that Vahlen is making the most out of the Hyperwave's time dilation."

"I'm sure that the Doc's got all sorts of projects keeping her busy." Yang laughed, "How about Shen? Or is he focused on the comms project?"

Gizmo nodded, "He's championing another side project alongside the big one. Won't say what it is, but he spends a lot of time with the computer servers when he's not helping Mac. My guess is that it's something digital."

"Hmmm…" Ruby's thoughts were briefly interrupted by Talos sitting down with some drinks for the four of them.

"Everyone's in pretty high, spirits." Talos added, popping the tab on his can and sampling the Remnant soda, "The Grimm situation is a pain, but we're getting the hang of dealing with them. Local law enforcement is also starting to develop tactics to deal with outbreaks."

"Only problem that remains is the Council, honestly." Gizmo said, taking her drink from Talos.

Ruby gave Gizmo a questioning look, "Still? I feel like Bradford would have his issues with them resolved by now."

Talos sighed, "Yeah, it's kind of a weird situation. I think Bradford recognizes that he was being an ass about the whole thing early on, but the Council reacted in an equally shitty fashion. Now that they've shown themselves to be entitled and petty, it raises questions with Bradford about trusting them."

"I mean, I can sort of see where they're coming from, what with being worried about a flying doom ship being out of their control." Yang said, glancing around to make sure their corner of the fairgrounds was still empty.

"Like I said, it's a weird situation." Gizmo said, "I totally see the concerns they may have, but I also got lucky and had the chance to be a fly on the wall in one of their 'discussions.' They throw entitled demands around like Engineers throw grenades."

Talos took a swig of his soda, "Scuttlebutt around the Temple Ship says that Bradford's going to try and reach a resolution with them soon, though. I think he recognizes that letting his relationship with the Council deteriorate can only be bad for business."

"He's had to swallow his pride in the past." Ruby said, watching with amusement as Talos chugged the rest of his drink, "Hopefully the end result will be worth the effort."

When the four of them finished their drinks, Ruby and Yang offered to give the MEC pilots a tour of the school. While the fairgrounds were certainly lively and full of colorful people, the huntresses had spent the last two days hanging around in the populated clearing with their friends and various guests from XCOM.

Besides, Gizmo and Talos were supposedly part of the Valean Recon Division, so why not take advantage of that?

* * *

A/N: Still trying to get the hang of Winter, which is why there was quite a bit of her in this chapter. Unlike some of the other characters I've written so far, I'm finding myself having a little difficulty getting into the flow of her personality.


	11. Ever Vigilant

A/N: Posting a day early because I'm not sure if I'll be able to get to my computer tomorrow night. I'm pretty excited about this chapter, partly because I decided to take an... artistic approach to the fight sequence. I got the idea from a one-shot I read back in March, and I hope you all find the execution here to be entertaining.

* * *

Jaune sighed as he laced up his boots in the locker room. Of all the teams in the random selection pool for the tournament, he and Pyrrha just _had_ to get paired up against Cardin. In terms of tournament strategy, JNPR couldn't have asked for a better gift: Pyrrha alone could handle whoever Cardin decided to send to the doubles, so their victory was pretty much assured at this point. Of course, there was this little thing known as character growth that Pyrrha believed in, and Jaune knew she would view this match as an opportunity to break through old mental barriers holding him back as a huntsman. He knew she expected him to take on Cardin and win.

The problem was, Jaune didn't doubt he could, either. His stats from the alien war were pretty impressive, and Jaune had made it through a lot of things far worse than Cardin. But rational thought and empirical evidence didn't stop his stomach from doing flip-flops at the thought of staring down his old bully. Even his recent excursion with Annette started, progressed, and concluded without a single hitch, and Jaune still felt the presence of a dark cloud lingering over him as the minutes ticked down until showtime.

"Something wrong?" Pyrrha asked as she did some last-minute tuning of her weapon.

Her partner sighed, "Just… y'know. Thinking about the match."

"You mean about how you're going to absolutely, positively wipe the floor with Cardin?" Pyrrha suggested with a sideways glance. Despite his nerves, Jaune couldn't help but remain amused as he watched his partner continue to run a whetstone over Miló's edge. She'd maintained this time-honored ritual for as long as he'd known her, and it almost felt like a small source of comfort for Jaune. No matter problem, no matter the odds, Pyrrha was always ready to fight.

After watching a few more strokes of the stone, Jaune answered, "Yeah… something like that."

"You'll do fine, Jaune." Pyrrha assured him, "I know it, Ruby knows it, Bradford knows it, and deep down… I'm sure you know it, too."

Jaune opened and closed his shield in an effort to at least appear like he was still getting ready. Deep down, though, he just wanted this to be over, "I know, I know. I'm just being childish, I guess. Like usual."

"Jaune."

The huntsman looked up to see his partner smiling at him, "Childish is the _last_ word I would think of to describe you."

"So, you planning on using your Tactical Sensor?" Jaune asked in an effort to switch topics, "I know you got a lot of use out of it when we helped out on strike missions in between vacations, but it might be nice to dust it off and use it again."

Pyrrha's smile turned into a scowl, "It feels like… cheating if I use that in the tournament."

"But that's the beauty of it!" Jaune argued, "These guys'll lose whether or not you use the TacSensor, so what's the harm in it? Besides, it's not that big of a deal. Ruby's team fought a girl riding around on a _hoverboard_. I'm pretty sure a little tracking doo-hickey is fine."

"Then answer me this: why haven't you used your armor's jetpack? Since you agreed to keep my semblance a secret during the tournament, the only other way you are able to rapidly reposition yourself is Nora's… ah… 'Fastball Special.' Why not use your gift to give yourself a better option?"

"The jump jets are a little more showy and obvious compared to your scanner." Jaune argued, "I want to keep it a secret until it's absolutely necessary."

"Keep what a secret?" A voice asked as its owner casually strolled around the corner. Jaune couldn't help it as he let out a reflexive groan at the sight of his least favorite classmate.

"It's nothing, Cardin."

The bully laughed, "Oh, Jauney Boy. You know how I feel about you keeping secrets from me." He raised an eyebrow as he saw Jaune put a hand on his sword, "Resorting to violence? C'mon, we're _friends_. We should save the fighting for the arena where I can beat the crap out of you. Y'know, like the good ol' days."

"What makes you think you can still beat up Jaune?" Pyrrha asked, her voice impassive while she resumed sharpening her blade.

Cardin shrugged, "It's only been… what? Two weeks since the last time I did it? I mean, I know Jauney's got guts, but that's no substitute for skill, Pyr-Pyr."

"Call my partner 'Pyr-Pyr' again, and I swear you won't be able to walk straight for a week." Jaune warned, his grip tightening on his sword. He could put up with Cardin mocking and insulting him personally. He could even willfully ignore all of the physical bullying he suffered at the hands of the jackass. Start insulting his partner? Different story entirely. The fear and anxiety evaporated and slow-burning rage started to take its place.

"Easy there, Jauney Boy." Cardin said, sensing the rising anger in his victim. He gave Jaune a pat on the head and started walking off, "You'll have a chance to defend your girlfriend's honor soon enough."

The two partners watched Cardin's retreating form until Jaune muttered, "Oooohhhhh this match is going to be _so_ satisfying."

Pyrrha smiled at the sight of Jaune's confidence returning in full force, "It really is. I think I'll enjoy watching you beat him up."

* * *

The pre-combat jitters returned once Jaune found himself in the arena. He still fully intended to beat the hell out of Cardin, but his mind was back to playing games with him again. Strangely enough, his thoughts kept wandering to the Balkans and the operation he ran with Annette. It felt good to go on a real mission again and remind himself of what he was capable of, but he hoped that it wouldn't distract him from the match now.

" _Contestants ready? Three… Two… One… Begin!_ "

The old Jaune would have charged headlong at Cardin, as if willing to receive the punishment that CRDL's leader was all-too-happy to dish out. The new Jaune? Not so much. He and his partner stood side by side, shields covering their vitals while Pyrrha braced her rifle and fired an opening volley at Cardin and Dove.

"What is it with running straight towards your enemy?" Jaune muttered, over the cracking reports of Miló and the pinging of Dove's return fire off of their shields, "Is it a huntsman thing, or just a freshman thing?"

"Freshman, I think." Pyrrha answered while the two of them slowly backed up to delay the inevitable clash of steel, "All of my best opponents back in Mistral always tested the waters before diving into melee. You want Cardin?"

"Yup."

And with that, the fight began in earnest. The two partners split up as Cardin and Dove finally reached their side of the arena. Jaune raised his shield and-

* * *

 _-deflected the opening swipe of the Beowolf. With the monster thrown off-balance by Jaune's defense, Annette leapt up from behind and sliced it in half with a whirling sweep of La Volonté. With her target slain, the operative-turned-huntress spun around and brought up her shifted shotgun to bear upon another approaching Grimm. Annette pulled the trigger, and the weapon kicked back as its munition tore out a chunk of the Beowolf's flank. She shifted La Volonté back into a sword, dashed forward, and ran the Beowolf through the chest._

 _Of course, in her zeal to eliminate her target, Annette failed to notice the third Beowolf coming up from behind._

" _On your six!" Jaune shouted as he jet-launched himself forward and came to a sliding halt behind Annette. In a fraction of a second, he steadied himself, braced with Crocea Mors, and let the clawed strike crash harmlessly against his defenses instead of Annette's exposed back._

" _It's good to practice your melee combat, but don't forget to think tactically!" He reminded his partner a moment before a shotgun blast rang out and Annette leapt over his crouched form to retaliate against her latest victim._

 _After a solid swing dismembered the Beowolf, Annette looked back at Jaune and grinned, "That's why you're here. I know you've got my back."_

 _Jaune picked himself up with a sigh and chased after Annette. The huntress had already turned her sights onto another target and readied her sword in anticipation of the next engagement. Before she could get the chance to cut another Beowolf to ribbons, the ground shuddered. Then it shuddered again. And a third time. Even the (now-thinned) pack of Beowolves stopped for a moment to look towards the source of the tremors. Over the ridgeline of the foothills to the north came a ponderous, heavily-armored, and uncharacteristically large Ursa. The Grimm reared up onto its hind legs and let loose an ear-splitting roar._

"… _Oh, crap."_

 _The beast slammed its paw into the earth and sent a shockwave towards the meleeing forces. Jaune watched the earth crack and split as the Ursa's energy propagated towards him. Rather than waste Elerium to fire up his jump jets to dodge the attack, Jaune decided to brace and outlast the quake. The churning earth finally reached him, and Jaune-_

* * *

-skidded back from Cardin's forceful blow, though he remained fairly unharmed. With the sounds of Pyrrha and Dove fighting in the background, Jaune kept his focus on the bully in front. Cardin brought his mace down in an overhead smash, and Jaune opted to perform a quick backstep to evade the crushing strike. Light on the balls of his feet, Jaune danced around Cardin and poked him once or twice with a quick stab between the plates of his armor.

After the third such jab, Cardin growled angrily, "What're you playing at, Arc? Stop dancing around and accept your punishment like a man!"

"Punishment?" Jaune asked, eyebrow raised as he ducked under another swing. Finally satisfied with his assessment of Cardin's fighting style (how had he lost to this oaf so many times in the past?), Jaune let loose with a rising slash from Crocea Mors across his opponent's breastplate. He grinned as Cardin stumbled back in surprise, "When did I ever agree to punishment, Cardin?"

From that point on, the fight began in earnest. Now that Jaune had a better understanding of Cardin's attack patterns, he knew which strikes to dodge and which ones were worth eating. His shield rang out as he absorbed a sideways swipe from his foe's mace and used Cardin's brief exposure for a swift retaliatory strike. Jaune delivered a kick to the side of his opponent's knee, forcing Cardin to buckle from the surprise attack. He followed up with a pommel strike to the back of the bully's head, and he heard Cardin yelp in a mixture of surprise and pain as the attack landed with muted _crack_.

"… What is going on here?" Cardin practically shouted before standing up and launching himself at Jaune. Shield at the ready, Jaune braced himself and let Cardin collide with his defenses. The momentum pushed the two back several feet before Jaune shoved the mace out of the way and jabbed at Cardin's abdomen.

"You-

* * *

" _\- are gonna have to do better than that." Jaune growled as the shifting earth subsided._

"Lieutenant," _Bradford's voice crackled in Jaune's ear "_ Local intelligence is reporting a new contact in your AO. Strike Three is ready to move in and assist on your order."

 _Jaune and Annette glanced at each other. The confident shake 'no' from Annette was all Jaune needed to see before keying his mic and answering,"Not yet, Central. We should be able to handle this. Have them maintain their position at the small town and continue to stabilize the situation while the Major and I deal with the new threat."_

 _Annette dispatched another Beowolf with a shotgun blast before returning her attention to Jaune and the Ursa, "If we're doing this your way, I take it you have a plan?"_

" _We can't forget about the rest of the pack, for one thing." Jaune said, glancing at the remaining Beowolves stalking the edges of the battlefield as the Ursa resumed its lumbering stride towards the clearing below, "Leave that to me while you focus on the bear. Given how much your three instructors rely on agility in their combat styles, I think you'll do fine avoiding its attacks."_

 _Annette thought back to what Pyrrha, Weiss, and Blake had tried to teach her during their short windows for training. She wasn't sure if Weiss's fencing style would work so well against this new threat, so perhaps she should go with Pyrrha's practical style (without the magnetic bag of tricks, of course). She let a small amount of Aura pool in her feet as she crouched low with La Volonté back in its sword form. She launched forward at high speed towards the Ursa._

" _Don't forget to test the waters before going in hard." Jaune called out as he kept the Beowolves in his field of vision, "Something that big and slow is bound to be-_

* * *

"-predictable, Cardin." Jaune explained, almost casually as he blocked another wild strike from his foe, "I'm not sure why I never noticed it before, but you're predictable."

"The hell I am!"

Almost as if trying to prove Jaune wrong, Cardin backed up and started to swing his weapon around in an erratic manner. He'd step in, throw the mace's weight at Jaune from an odd angle, and back off after his opponent deflected the attack. He danced (or rather, stomped) around before trying to dart in from another angle. Jaune found the effort admirable, except for the fact that Cardin's armor was way too heavy to allow the tactic to be effective. Even Jaune, with his preference for tanking over dodging, had no difficulty avoiding Cardin's telegraphed moves and stepping out of the way.

A buzzer rang overhead, and Jaune heard Port's voice boom out, " _And that's it for mister Bronzewing! What's this? Miss Nikos is taking a seat to watch the fight between Arc and Winchester? I suppose it's to be an honorable duel, then!_ "

"Now you're just mocking me." Cardin glowered.

Jaune deflected another blow and shrugged, "I can ask my partner to step in and finish this quickly if you'd like. But I thought you were looking forward to beating the crap out of me."

The two continued to trade blows, though Jaune could see Cardin's strength flagging. With a grin, Jaune picked up the pace of his attacks. In order to position himself for superior strikes, Jaune began to sacrifice his dodges in favor of tanking Cardin's blows and following up with a savage counter. As Cardin's strength waned, it because easier to tank his mace attacks.

"C'mon, Cardin! What're you waiting fo- _GUK!_ "

Jaune's vision exploded with stars he felt himself tumble head over heel across the arena floor.

" _Out of nowhere, a strike like that! Mister Winchester seems to have found his second wind!_ "

As he tried to pull himself together, he felt the ground shake with each step Cardin took. When the bootfalls stopped, he wondered if Pyrrha had intervened. But wouldn't that have caused the buzzer to ring?

A swift kick to Jaune's gut clarified that point for him.

"You're right, Jauney. I guess I really did want to beat you up after all."

Another kick, and Jaune-

* * *

 _-felt the wind get knocked out of him completely. To his left, Annette shook herself out of the dazed state induced by the Ursa's armored swipe. On the bright side, Jaune didn't see any sign of blood or bruising, so it looked like Annette's Aura was doing its job. At the very least, the Ursa confirmed for them that it could survive a few blows before dissipating._

 _Jaune returned his focus back to matters at hand. Enhanced strength came packaged with the Ursa's extra armor, it seemed. Annette displayed an impressive degree of agility and finesse as she tangled with the Ursa. Jaune saw clear indications of Pyrrha's instruction manifest itself in Annette's motions as she ducked, weaved, and flourished her weapon while the knight kept the Beowolves at bay._

 _It only took one clean hit to throw off the huntress, however. Given that none of her opponents so far carried the heavy weight of an armored bear clocking in at several thousand pounds, it sort of made sense that she wasn't used to that sort of power and failed to roll with the blow when it finally landed. After bumping and skidding for several paces, she managed to roll into a crouched stance before throwing herself back at the monster. The problem, Jaune noted, was that Annette hadn't entirely shaken off the dazed state that set in from the first hit. Her steps were a little wobbly and he could see that her reactions had slowed down by a fraction of a second._

 _The Ursa reared up for what would undoubtedly be another earth-shattering slam._

" _Annette!"_

 _The huntress-in-training swore and kicked off the ground to launch herself sideways. The aftershock from the Ursa's attack knocked the unsteady Annette off her feet. Judging by her groan, it seemed like she still needed more time to fully shake off the heavy blow. Time that Jaune suspected he'd have to buy for her. He could try to get its attention with an attack from the other direction, but his partner would be in bad shape if the Ursa decided to ignore Jaune's ruse and land a coup de grace on Annette. As the bear raised its paw again to attack his partner, Jaune threw himself into harms way and-_

* * *

-rolled over with a gasp.

" _Well this is almost unsportsman-like._ " Oobleck commented, " _And yet Nikos still refuses to end things! What on earth is going on?_ "

Amid idle wonderings of why the match wasn't getting stopped to prevent Cardin's cruelty from attracting Grimm, Jaune's danger sense screamed inside his ear. His survival instincts kicked in, and he found the strength to roll to the side in time to feel Cardin's mace crash into the floor next to him. Rather than pull it back up, however, Cardin swiped it sideways across the floor and sent Jaune reeling again.

"Not so tough anymore. Where's all that bravado from before, huh? One good hit, and you're down?"

 _One overconfident mistake is all it takes to get screwed on an op,_ Jaune recalled, _Serves me right._

Instead he grunted, "Nah. Just taking a quick break is all." He slowly staggered to his feet just in time to receive Cardin's shoulder check and reel back a few steps… but not before Cardin swung his mace around, locked it with Crocea Mors, and twisted it out of Jaune's grasp.

"Oh ho ho, no you don't." Cardin taunted, "Since you've _clearly_ been spending more time than I thought practicing with dear Pyr-Pyr, I don't think I'll be letting you play knight again."

This definitely posed a problem. Turning his back on Cardin to retrieve his sword would leave him vulnerable to a crippling cheap shot. Without Crocea Mors, though, his entire fighting strategy became useless. Hand-to-hand could be an option, but Jaune was no Yang. Against an unarmed Cardin, perhaps he would stand a chance. As it were, he'd probably break his hand against that cruel-looking mace.

 _Click._ There. Jaune heard it this time, and he knew he needed to dodge the next hit. He dove to the side and felt the ground rupture behind him as Cardin slammed his mace into the ground with-

* * *

- _volcanic force. By this time, Jaune and Annette had recovered enough to dodge the telegraphed attack. That didn't stop the rippling earth from sending crippling force through their limbs and setting them off-balance. As Jaune steadied himself, he saw Annette shift her sword into a gun and aim right past his face. Catching the hint, Jaune dropped to all fours as La Volonté discharged and the Beowolf yelped from his rear. While Annette was busy dealing with the interloper, however, Jaune kept his eyes on the Ursa._

" _It takes a few seconds to recover from its ground-pound attack before it can move again." He said, readying his shield as the behemoth rose to its feet once again, "If we can capitalize on that and get in a few good hits while its down…"_

"… _It'll probably make things a lot easier." Annette agreed, ducking under a sideways swipe, "Need me to be the bait?"_

" _I was going to volunteer for that myself, actually."_

" _Yeah, but you've got those jump jets." His partner argued, "You can dodge the shockwave completely and dive back in for the kill."_

 _She had a point. The two of them charged into the battle against the Ursa once more, their blades crashing harmlessly against its bony armor as it turtled up against their onslaught. Soon, Jaune backed off and left Annette to stare down their foe. Despite having little-to-no effect on their target, Jaune couldn't help but be impressed by the way Annette flowed from one strike into the next. Now that she had fully recovered from the shock of the Ursa's first hit and started to learn the patterns of its attack, the huntress finally found her groove. Swing, spin, dodge, shoot. Slash, slide, stab, jump. The Shadow Armor she wore allowed for full range of motion and didn't slow her down as she danced around the gargantuan beast._

 _More than once, Jaune watched her practice techniques Ren taught her early on in her huntsmen training. Her dashes and jumps had a supernatural flair to them, and Jaune noticed the faint glow of Annette's Aura pooling around the soles of her feet as she continued to hold the Ursa's attention._

 _Eventually, the Grimm decided to strike back. Once again, it rose up on its hind legs and slammed back down to crush Annette. At the same time, Jaune ignited his jump jets and took to the skies before twisting around and blasting back to the ground as he saw a cloud of dust roll out like a wave away from the Ursa's blow. He had to trust that Annette evaded the attack while he focused on flinging himself towards the exposed fur on the Grimm's back. Shield out front to soften his landing with his sword ready to be driven into the gargantuan beast, Jaune tensed as he braced for impact and-_

* * *

-crashed his shield into Cardin's face. With his mace stuck firmly in the ground for a split second, he had no way of blocking Jaune's rapid retaliation. In one swift motion, Jaune swept his foot past Cardin and sent the bully's weapon skittering far out of reach.

Cardin recovered from the headshot and glared daggers at him, "Screw you.."

"Am I supposed to apologize for making this fight fair?" He didn't show it in his taunt, but Jaune still felt his energy flagging from Cardin's earlier beatdown. He knew he had the will for a second wind to give Cardin his all, but he wouldn't be able to keep things going forever.

Cardin swung at Jaune, who barely ducked out of the way of the punch before delivering his own straight to the gut. He realized too late that he put too much weight into the swing and could only watch as Cardin's knee connected with his breastplate.

" _Well I'll be._ " Port said, " _I haven't seen a good showing of fisticuffs like this since-_ "

" _Since Xiao Long and Altan squared off a few days ago?_ "

" _... Fair point._ "

The two huntsmen staggered back into fighting stances, and Jaune didn't wait for Cardin to take the initiative. He ducked low and rose into another gut punch, careful not to commit too hard this time. Cardin threw a right hook that connected with Jaune's forearm before delivering a headbutt. Stars exploded into Jaune's vision as he reeled back, but he steeled himself to the pain and whipped his fist into a backhand that slammed into Cardin's jaw.

"Why won't you go down?" Cardin grunted, stepping forward to deliver an overhead punch.

Jaune stepped inside of the strike and let Cardin's arm fly past his shoulder, "Because I've faced worse than you." He whispered.

Jaune shoved his adversary back before digging his feet into the ground and kicking off to throw himself back into the melee. The two huntsmen continued to trade blows, blocking and countering as best they could while all the glancing kicks and punches started to pile up. Jaune had to give credit where it was due: Cardin knew how to fight on through fatigue. However, Jaune's survival instincts began to kick in the further he felt himself getting pushed to the edge of his limits. With sweat streaming down his face and the taste of blood in his mouth, this became less of a tournament match for Jaune and more of a fight where failure simply wasn't an option.

His eyes sharpened into focus, and his muscles relaxed. He willed his breathing to fall into a steady pattern while his mind searched for a certain path to victory. Left jab, duck, spin, elbow strike. Backstep, stomp, uppercut. Deflect, kick, grunt. With each blow he landed upon the bully that blighted the memories of his first year at Beacon, Jaune felt himself become more alive. Each punch returned by his nemesis was weakness leaving his body. When the final knee strike connected with Cardin's ribs, Jaune instantly sensed the will to fight finally leave his opponent. He could almost feel Zhang's quiet satisfaction as he planted a hand on Cardin's breastplate and sent-

* * *

-t _he Ursa crashing to the ground. Jaune spent a few seconds letting his ragged breathing stabilize as he watched the Ursa slowly melt into a black puddle of ichor. Big Sky would return with a containment team to literally mop up the 'bodies,' but Strike Three had to first confirm that the perimeter was secure. Chatter over the radio indicated that the rest of the team encountered no further resistance within the local township, and that the team was on its way back to pick up Jaune and Annette._

 _Even if the Council still had some beef with XCOM, it was fairly obvious that most of the world treated them like the heroes Jaune knew they were. It happened every time Central received word of an outbreak: panic would cause the situation to rapidly deteriorate before XCOM finally arrived, but the mere presence of a trained team of Grimm Killers proved enough to sufficiently quell the fear and allow the Strike team to stem the tide of gathering monsters. Most incursions were put down within a matter of hours, but Vahlen was still far away from a permanent solution to the problem. Still, today's small victory was reason enough to celebrate._

" _So," Jaune started, breath still a little faster than normal, "What do you think?"_

 _Annette smiled, twirling La Volonté through the air in front of her, "I feel amazing. I mean, Assault operatives are usually pretty athletic and mobile on the battlefield, but the amount of energy and power I could draw upon from my Aura?" The huntress shifted her sword into a shotgun and cocked it, "I had a blast."_

* * *

" _And with that, CRDL is defeated!_ " Oobleck called.

" _What a match it was!_ " Port cheerfully added, " _I've never seen mister Arc fight quite like that since I've known him during his time at Beacon. His team must be proud of his performance today._ "

"Well, 'proud' doesn't quite cover it." Pyrrha said as she walked up and placed a gentle hand on her partner's shoulder, "Mild concern would also be accurate. But it's definitely a start. Well done, Jaune."

Jaune gave Pyrrha a toothy grin, "Only mild concern?"

"I have faith in you." She answered cheerfully, "To be honest, I don't know how _I_ would have recovered from a hit like that. I suppose that's why I have a policy of 'avoid getting hit in the first place.' "

"Well, I think we've already established I'm a sucker for punishment. C'mon… let's get cleaned up and get some food. I'm starving."

The two of them walked off, leaving Cardin laying on the stadium floor to pick himself up.

"… What the hell just happened?"

* * *

Ozpin looked up from his desk at the sound of the elevator opening, and he smiled at his guest.

"Ah, Miss Goodwitch. How may I help you?"

Glynda raised an eyebrow and glanced at the collection of paper in her hand, "Is that an invitation to inform you of all the duties you need to fulfill-?"

"How may I help you with what you have specifically come here to discuss with me?" Ozpin clarified with an amused sigh. Glynda very rarely joked with him, so it was always a pleasure to witness on the occasions that she actually did. Like catching a glimpse of a unicorn, "Does it have to do with our recent guests?"

"Work is progressing at a rate anticipated by the chief engineer." Glynda reported, "MacAuley is a bit… colorful with his language, but he is actually rather competent when he isn't busy running his mouth off."

"And the others?"

Glynda nodded, "Qrow is proving useful, though he seems to enjoy getting a rise out of MacAuley. I thought he was only good at covering his own tracks, but I must say I'm impressed with his efforts to discreetly move supplies for the project."

"It's almost as if he's a skilled informant." Ozpin smirked, earning him an eyeroll from his colleague.

"Oobleck is spending more time learning from MacAuley than he is helping him," Glynda continued, "And Port is being Port, to the surprise of no one."

No surprise there. Ozpin knew Peter Port to be a competent huntsman when push came to shove, but he had a habit of exaggerating his own importance and spending his academic efforts on less-than-helpful pursuits. It was all harmless, of course, and Ozpin mostly wanted him with the team so he could remain appraised of the situation without having his feelings hurt.

He had similar reasons for sticking Oobleck on the team. While the hyperactive professor had an honest passion for learning, he spent most of his time playing to his strength as a historian rather than his hobby of a scientist. From what Ozpin gathered from Bradford during their communications during the war, Dr. Shen and his staff performed mechanical miracles. If anyone would be fascinated by the Chief Engineer's work and willingly take on the role of a model student, it was Barty. Perhaps Ozpin could even convince Oobleck to include some of Shen's insight in the science-related curriculum offered at Beacon.

"Then it sounds like everything is moving along nicely." The headmaster summarized, "I appreciate your efforts to keep me informed, Glynda."

Ozpin knew that Goodwitch still had more to say when she hesitated after his invitation for her to leave. Again, not really a surprise, given that he didn't expect Glynda to come up and see him simply to report no problems whatsoever. When Ozpin raised a questioning eyebrow, Glynda sighed and finally voiced her real reason for coming, "Are you sure this isn't going to come back to bite us with James? You and I both know that if he finds out we're doing this without his knowledge, he'll be furious."

"And rightfully so." Ozpin answered, "He is the Head of Security for the festival after all."

"Don't tell me you're still bitter about that."

Ozpin shook his head, "I never was, Glynda. As much as it hurt to learn how little faith James has in my abilities to lead and protect, it is clear that he made his choice for the right reason. Though we tend to frequently disagree in our methods, I fully believe that Ironwood always keeps the safety of humanity at the forefront of his mind. I could never begrudge him for trying to put the good of the kingdoms above the pride of a friend."

Glynda nodded. As much as Ozpin enjoyed teasing her with cryptic answers whenever she asked simple questions, she couldn't deny that he had a way with words. Regardless, she still needed her question answered.

"So then why are we going behind his back with this? You and I both know that Ironwood is a pragmatist, and he would be okay with these kind of safeguards so long as we cleared them with him first."

"You give him too much credit." Ozpin said with a wistful smile, "What you and I see as a safeguard against an unseen enemy, Ironwood would see as Vale trying to gain an upper hand against him in an imaginary arms race."

"It's bad enough that we've introduced the Valean Recon Division…" Glynda mused.

Ozpin nodded before standing up from his desk, "I'm fairly certain he still doesn't trust Bradford. Even if we explained that the incident at the CCT was the impetus for this initiative, the fact that it's championed by our new friend would be enough to make James instantly suspicious. Coffee?"

Glynda politely declined with a slight shake of her head, and Ozpin set off towards the back of the room to begin preparing some for himself. The slightly inconvenient placement of his brewing station was intentional: he could easily spend hours lost in work or thought at his desk, and so the desire for a fresh cup of coffee forced him to get up and talk a brief walk to break up the monotony of his daily duties.

As he set about fixing himself a cup of caffeine, Glynda continued their conversation, "And what about us? Why do we trust our new friend? I am well aware of the fact that he looked after two of our freshman teams for nine months and that they vouch for him and the rest of XCOM, but you cannot deny that an organization that comes to Remnant from literally across time and space merits a healthy amount of caution. But after a few electronic conversations with Bradford, a few face-to-face meetings, and you see no reason why anyone should have concerns about his intentions."

As he watched the warm liquid percolate, Ozpin considered Glynda's assertion. Contrary to what she seemed to think, he was quite aware of the practical benefits of tempering his new friendship with due caution. However, he also couldn't ignore the fact that eight of his students spent six to nine months with XCOM and had nothing negative to say about the organization. If he only had Ruby's word to go off of, then maybe he would have cause to be more suspicious. However, students such as Weiss, Blake, Pyrrha, Ren, and even Jaune were less naive than Beacon's youngest team leader, and certainly would have noticed any suspicious activity going on at XCOM, especially after spending months in constant contact with its people and facilities. And yet Bradford had somehow earned their fierce loyalty. That alone gave Ozpin all the reason he needed to trust XCOM.

Of course, it was more fun to give Glynda a more mysterious answer. Ozpin refilled his mug and slowly stepped towards the floor-to-ceiling window behind his desk, "Is it too much to ask for you to trust the intuition of an old wizard?"

Glynda scoffed, "You do realize claiming to be the wizard in the tale of the maidens only works if you haven't already told your audience that the wizard does not, in fact, exist."

"I may not be the wizard, but it seems that I am indeed old with a few holes in my memory." Ozpin laughed, "You can't blame me for trying."

His companion joined him at the window, and the two of them looked down at the buzz of activity in and around Beacon. JNPR's match against CRDL was merely the halfway point for today's scheduled fights, and so the festival's amenities were especially busy with the lunch rush. Ozpin wished he had the free time to go down and enjoy the fairgrounds himself, but he had far too much work that needed to be completed. Glynda's presence was a sharp reminder of that.

"Just… promise to be careful, alright?" She said, "Bradford doesn't raise any red flags for me, either, but that doesn't mean that he's not hiding something."

Ozpin nodded, "Of course. But for now, I think we should focus on the project at hand. From what Dr. Shen has told me, Bradford is ready to deploy his system this evening."

"Ironwood has business to attend to with delegates from the other kingdoms." Glynda said, checking her scroll, "Which means that you should probably attend as well if you don't want James to be any more suspicious than necessary about the Recon Division. Shall I oversee things here in your absence?"

"Yes, thank you." Ozpin smiled. He turned away from the window and placed his mug on the desk, preparing to return to his work. Glynda made her way towards the elevator to leave Ozpin to work in peace.

"One more thing, Glynda." The headmaster called out, "Bradford says that his team has developed another project to be installed in tandem with the communication system, or at least shortly thereafter. RWBY and JNPR have already agreed to undertake it."

Glynda sighed. Of course he would wait until she was about to leave before dropping that nugget of information. Even so, if she continued to doubt Ozpin just because he seemed to have unwavering confidence in Bradford's intentions, what did that say about her? For so long, she'd believed in him, even scolding Ironwood when she first sensed hesitancy from the General before the ugly business with the Breach. Faith in Ozpin had brought her this far, she reminded herself. She would have to withhold judgment about XCOM until she had enough evidence for her own needs, but that didn't mean she needed to worry about Ozpin.

So she paused long enough to nod and offer an, "Of course, sir" before continuing towards the elevator.

* * *

A/N: Alright, time for another round of "DrAmish Wants Your Thoughts." The fight in this chapter sparked a conversation I had with my editor about the lethality of combat. My experience with writing the slow, methodical pace of combat in the Long War has coupled with my desire for interesting fight sequences has resulted in tournament fights that go on for a fairly long time. This was brought into focus during RWBY vs. FNKI where more than one person was surprised that Ruby and Blake didn't immediately wipe the floor with Flynt and Neon on account of their nine months in a deadly combat zone. I thought about it for a bit, and came to realize that I've sort of imagined Aura as an extra hp bar that simply extends the Time-To-Kill with lethal weapons to be a lot longer than would otherwise be the case. To bring an example into this, the original version of Jaune's fight had him slashing at Cardin's exposed neck with Crocea Mors rather than going for the pommel smash. I just assumed "eh, Cardin's Aura will just tank it" when my editor's reaction was, "Yeah... that's game-set-match right there."

I did a little research by re-watching the _other_ time Cardin had someone from JNPR beat the snot out of him, and paid attention to how many of Pyrrha's hits actually got past her opponent's defenses and struck someone from CRDL. The actual number turned out to be a lot lower than I had originally expected. But then you have tournament fights like the canon RWBY vs. FNKI where Weiss assaults Flynt with a flurry of rapid strikes (and Neon does the same to Yang) without being blocked, and the victim doesn't go down for the count. There's other examples that seem to back both sides of the conundrum, so I thought I'd ask you guys for your input. I'm slightly amused at the meta-ness of the idea that my struggle to realistically write a huntsman-on-huntsman fight is mirroring RWBY's struggle to engage in one. But just like our protagonists, I'd like to learn, adapt, and come out on top.


	12. Spy Ring

Walking around a crowded festival while standing a good head shorter than everyone else was not Neo's idea of a good time. Sure, the food stands smelled good, the cotton candy looked tasty, and the live music was decent, but she never enjoyed getting jostled around through a crowd while struggling to keep track of where she needed to go. But with Roman locked up on his little air prison, the annoyingly smug boss lady became the one giving Neo her marching orders. So after watching Emerald and Mercury absolutely wreck some chumps from Vacuo, the late afternoon found the diminutive trickster wandering around the fairgrounds looking for…

Looking for what exactly? Cinder complained about those teams from Vale, RWBY and JNPR. Something something Valean Recon Division, something something find them and keep tabs on them. Unfortunately for Neo, 'keeping tabs' on someone wasn't the same as 'killing or maiming' them, which was a lot more fun. She didn't even get permission to hurt them just a little bit. What Neo didn't get was why Cinder cared. So some kids from Oz's silly little school were doing something (undoubtedly boring) with Vale's military. Isn't that standard operating procedure at Atlas? So why does it suddenly become weird if Vale does the same thing? Whatever. The boss lady says "jump," and Neo is supposed to ask "how high." Well, wait for Cinder to say it, anyway. At least work usually provided an entertaining diversion, whether in the form of teasing Roman or watching the last moments of terror in someone's eyes. The little things in life, really.

Whatever the case, nothing in her instructions prevented Neo from taking a detour for some food. In fact, those high stools would almost certainly give her an advantage in height, so not stopping for a bite to eat could actually be considered a dereliction of duty. And since she and Roman agreed a while ago that it was best to stay on Cinder's good side, Neo would be a productive little spy and order some ice cream while carrying out her orders.

At least, she would if she had any money to pay for it. As much as she enjoyed the prospect of taking the shopkeep for a chump and stealing a bowl of delicious dessert for herself, she didn't want to risk getting caught and making a scene. Keeping a low profile (and murder) was her specialty. Stealing and sleight of hand was what Cinder kept that Emerald kid around for. Well, the dessert hut wasn't exactly crowded right now. She could at least hop up onto the stool and pretend to peruse the menu while looking around for any of her designated marks. She climbed into one of the seats and made a show of grabbing one of the laminated menus to look at the options. With a small kick, Neo spun the chair around and poked her head up over the menu to scan the festival as the world drifted lazily past her eyes.

First pass… nothing. Second pass… nothing. Third pass…

"Excuse me miss?" The shopkeeper asked from behind, "Are you going to order anything?"

Neo glanced back at the young man and pointed down at the menu with a shrug. The shopkeeper sighed, "Alright. If business starts to pick up, though, I'm going to have to ask you to leave if you still haven't decided by then."

She smiled at the shopkeeper, then rolled her eyes after she turned back around to continue glancing out over the crowd. Neo had half a mind to put her mission on hold to teach the shopkeep a lesson. One that would involve waiting until he got off shift before reminding him why it's a bad idea for proprietors to be rude to their customers. But professionalism overruled her desire for revenge, and she returned her focus to the matter at hand.

Lots of families walking around with shrieking children, young boys trying to impress girls with idiotic stunts, and a _ridiculous_ number of huntsmen. If it weren't for the fact that Neo knew Cinder's plan would end up bringing a veritable force of nature down upon this stupid town, she'd wonder how the woman could possibly go up against this much firepower and come out on top. Good thing this new threat Cinder had her tracking was just some dumb recon division. Information gathering wouldn't help them very much when the multi-ton, killer chickens came home to roost. All she needed to do was keep them from finding out about the multi-ton, killer chickens in the first place.

There.

Flaming red hair, unmistakable gold and bronze armor, and a dumb-looking blonde hanging off her shoulder. It looked like Neo had finally found her mark.

"Okay, thanks anyway. Enjoy your day at the fair." The shopkeeper said with half-hearted cheer as Neo tossed the menu back onto the counter and jumped off the stool. Without the advantage of height anymore, Neo had to move quickly to avoid losing the Nikos girl. The crowd thinned out once she moved away from the food center, which made things a little easier. Even so, Neo had to dodge the occasional roughhousing children playing a game of tag (or trip them, which served the same purpose while giving Neo a small amount of satisfaction). While such diversions forced her attention away from the partners she needed to track, Neo eventually managed to get within hearing distance.

"You excited for the finals, Pyrrha?"

"I suppose, though I still think you should have been chosen."

The blonde kid sighed, "Look Pyr, I know the whole 'fame and fortune' thing has pretty much lost its charm for you, but look at it from an unbiased perspective. You are, without question, our strongest fighter. More than that, you don't need to rely on anyone else to be effective, which makes you perfect for the solo round."

"I know, I know." Pyrrha said, and Neo noticed that she looked increasingly uncomfortable as the conversation carried on, "But this is also a chance for you to really test yourself against some of the best the other kingdoms have to offer. Your match today showed that you have become a very talented huntsman, Jaune, and I think the finals round would have been a wonderful way to prove it."

Neo tuned out their banter while she continued to silently tail them. Her short stature came in handy for once, allowing her to remain inconspicuous among the population of visitors meandering about Beacon's grounds. If those two ended up walking somewhere a little more desolate, she would need to be careful. Her semblance made that pretty trivial, but only a fool would assume victory and not take steps to achieve it. As she walked, she kept her eye out for anyone that might be part of that Recon Division. She had hoped to find them talking with someone from RWBY or JNPR, thereby killing two birds with one stone, but alas… The Invincible Girl would have to suffice for now.

She followed them into Beacon, bending light around her small frame to remain hidden. The next hour found her trying not to retch as she watched the young couple get all lovey-dovey on the top of a stupid roof, and she seriously considered ditching them in search of a better mark. Even though she never had _that_ kind of relationship with Roman, it made her acutely aware of just how much his absence left a hole in her day-to-day activities. If nothing else, she no longer had someone around who knew how to appreciate a good prank. Cinder was obviously off-limits, but the other two members of their posse didn't seem to have much patience for Neo's antics, either.

After watching the blond kid (John? Juane?) timidly reach for Pyrrha's butt for the third time, Neo decided that enough was enough. She had better things to do than watch teenagers be awkward. Roman wouldn't have blamed her, and she could probably justify it to Cinder as 'trying to make efficient use of her scouting time' or some other bullshit like that. Maybe she could track down that ice cream shopkeep and teach him a lesson, or-

"Think it's been long enough?"

"Yeah, it's probably safe to check on MacAuley's status with the relay."

… Or she could afford to stay a little longer with these two. She waited for them to slowly get up, dust themselves up, and mosey back down to the school grounds. Neo couldn't tell if they were taking their sweet time just for the hell of it, or because they were still following some sort of protocol to lose any potential followers. Well, joke's on them: their plan would have worked if they'd kept their stupid mouths shut.

At least she'd have something interesting to report to the boss lady.

* * *

In a small, quiet room far removed from all the laughter and festivities of the festival, MacAuley pored over his new creation. The dorm room lent to Bradford by Ozpin looked nothing like the living arrangements the Irishman had seen for RWBY or JNPR: they didn't have state-of-the-art radio technology scattered throughout their room with a multitude of cables growing every which way. The biggest hunk of metal, the relay itself, sat in the center of the room and looked like the hub of some nervous system as it connected to nearly every other piece of hardware involved. Given that every second counted on Remnant, MacAuley didn't spend time organizing the cables into neat bundles that snaked from one terminal to another in a neat line. Perhaps if he had time later, he could work on that with some help from Ozpin's crew, but for now? He needed to get this thing up and running.

The dorm room idea came from Ozpin himself. Bradford originally assumed that MacAuley's little gizmo would be going on top of Beacon Tower or somewhere with a similarly commanding view of the surrounding area. After some discussions with Ozpin and Qrow, he came to the agreement that the tower was too high-profile for any sort of covert work. Even if the tower didn't get too many visitors, enough dignitaries (both foreign and domestic) met with Ozpin in his office to the point where it could be a liability both in terms of location as well as the time it would take to get things up and running. Thus, the idea came about for XCOM to use a room in one of the presently empty dormitory wings on campus. While the facility was undergoing renovations for the majority of the year, Ozpin requested the work be put on hold for the duration of the Vytal Festival to avoid having the unpleasant sights and sounds of construction crews detracting from guests' enjoyment of Beacon. And since Bradford and Ozpin intended to bring XCOM's existence to light after the conclusion of the festival, the building presented an ideal opportunity for Bradford to set up his communication system without discovery or interruption.

The sound of a knock at the door interrupted MacAuley's thoughts. He looked up from his work and waited for a moment before he heard the second part of the knock. With a small sigh of relief, the engineer got up and opened the door, grinning at his visitor, "Hey, Barty. What's up, my man?"

"Ozpin informed me that you are almost ready to power on the relay... and requested that I assist you however I can." The professor said. While the rapid-fire pace of his speech still proved to be a source of amusement for MacAuley, the Irishman had spent enough time with Oobleck by now to have little trouble parsing the professor's words. Oobleck produced two thermoses, and MacAuley could see steam rising from their lids, "He suggested that I start by bringing... caffeinated substances to help you maintain your focus during this _critical_ time."

The engineer chuckled and took one of the mugs from Oobleck. The professor may act like a hyperactive screwball 24/7, but perhaps that explained his impressive tastes in coffee. One whiff of the aroma coming from his container was enough to give MacAuley a little energy boost. He took a small sip before carefully setting the thermos down and returning to his work, "Well, I just finished wiring up the relay to the building's power grid thanks to the documents and schematics you gave me. It's not too different from the commercial infrastructure you'd find back on Earth, and I've already got some experience adapting my equipment to alien technology. It helped that Vahlen had already conducted some research on harnessing dust as a power resource, so these prototype regulators have undergone some testing before I slapped them into the system. Next up is to turn the damn thing on and calibrate the RF signals so that they hide out in an unused bandwidth. Won't get any background noise on the comms that way, and nobody will be able to sniff us out unless they specifically know where to look."

"… I understood some of those words."

"For starters, 'RF' stands for 'Radio Frequency.'" Mac said with a chuckle, "How familiar are you with signal processing?" A fair question, the Irishman realized. Up until now, he'd kept Oobleck busy with the power issue, so there wasn't really any chance to quiz him on the communications side of the project. Now that he'd finished integrating Shen's hardware into the dormitory room loaned to XCOM by Ozpin for the project, he wondered if he could rely on his assistant to help with the technical work or if he'd have to stick Oobleck with manual labor. As odd as the man was, MacAuley found himself warming up to the good doctor. Maybe he could teach Oobleck a thing or two about engineering after the festival finished.

"I've spent some of my free time learning how the CCTS works, but most of the publicly-available information is... unfortunately vague." The professor explained, "I must admit that my academic strength is in history! While science is incredibly fascinating, I have regrettably little time to do more than cursory investigations into its secrets. Especially during the school year."

MacAuley shrugged, "No big deal. Your radio engineers probably kept the information cryptic to avoid having some dumbass punks break everything. Hackers and hobbyists are a big enough problem on Earth, and they don't have the capability to completely sever communication between nations if they screw shit badly enough. I can only imagine how bad it would be if the CCTS went down for you guys." He glanced up at Oobleck, "Seriously, though… Remnant needs to look into a redundant comm system. I know there's been a few hiccups in achieving spaceflight around here, but perhaps XCOM could give you guys a few commsats as part of some sort of transplanetary trade deal. I dunno."

That was a discussion for later, though. Right now, MacAuley had a job to do. He double-checked all the wiring he'd spent the afternoon routing and started to slowly power up his systems.

"Alright… nothing's shorting out, so that's a good sign so far." He said, eyes scanning his diagnostic tools, "Now we just have to make sure that this thing can process and relay comm signals. You ready to help, Doc?"

In less than a second, Oobleck zipped up behind MacAuley and peered over his shoulder at the voltmeter readouts on the engineer's information panel, "Absolutely! What do you need me to do?"

MacAuley inched to his left, "Uhh… start by giving me some space, buddy. Good. Now, do you know how a Spectrum Analyzer works?"

"It… analyzes spectrums?"

"Well, you're not wrong." MacAuley sighed, "Alright, you see that gizmo over there? The coil wrapped around a little plastic bar thingy? I need you to take that over to the window and point it outside veeeeeeery carefully. Remember, we're trying to be discrete here."

Oobleck got up and grabbed the device, careful to avoid tripping on any of the multitude of wires snaking out of its back end. He reached the window, carefully poked the end of his device under the thick, green curtains, and nodded at Macauley. The Irishman flipped a switch and watched as his screen sprang to life. Waveform mountains came into existence on his signal graph, their lines constantly shifting as Oobleck's tool tried to filter out static noise and feed a steady signal to MacAuley's station.

"Alright, the sniffer is working. Let's see what we've got here…" MacAuley scanned the range of frequency to determine the bands actively used on Remnant. They didn't match the standards he was familiar with on Earth, obviously, and he briefly wondered what kind of communication protocols were in place for radio usage. He'd gathered from his research that Atlas kept a pretty tight lid on the inner-workings of their technology, so he'd have to do some digging later when he had more time for side projects. For now, though he found a couple of gaps in the frequency spectrum that looked like good candidates for sneaking his signal into RF space. It would take some time to properly tune his equipment to the correct frequencies, but it wasn't an impossible task. Over the last week and a half on Earth, MacAuley spent a lot of time with Dr. Shen in engineering to maximize the adaptability of the signal the radios could use. While Bradford's mainly wanted the ability to quickly re-tune XCOM's equipment if the main channel was somehow compromised, it had the helpful side-effect of making MacAuley's current job a whole lot easier.

The engineer continued to analyze the data, "Jesus, 100 dB down… That's gotta be the CCT signal. Guess it needs to be beefy if you guys want to send data across the fuckin' ocean." He cast a sheepish glance at Oobleck, "Pardon my French."

"Makes sense." Oobleck said, completely ignoring the last part, "Shall I continue sweeping?"

"Nah, I've captured all the data I need, I think. Let's get to tuning our own gear, shall we?"

Another knock on the door interrupted them, and the two men snapped their attention to the doorway. Ozpin selected this part of the dormitories specifically because it was currently decommissioned and therefore had no random foot traffic. If the wrong person stumbled upon MacAuley's operation here and blew the lid on XCOM…

MacAuley quietly flipped the strap fastening his sidearm and stood up. He watched Oobleck put down the RF sniffer and pick up his thermos, then widened his eyes as he thermos expanded into some sort of baton.

"Man," He whispered, "And I thought I'd seen everything with Crescent Rose."

The two men slowly approached the door and waited to see if the stranger would give up and go away. However, the fact that they came to this dormitory and chose to knock on this specific door didn't bode well for that wishful thinking. What were the odds of some lovey-dovey couple stumbling upon XCOM's operation while trying to find an unoccupied dorm room for a quick roll in the hay?

Before he could get carried away with more hypotheticals, he heard Pyrrha's voice on the other side of the door, "Are you sure this is the right one? Nobody's answering."

"I mean, I'm pretty sure… wait!" MacAuley rolled his eyes as Jaune remembered the second half of the knock. He re-holstered his handgun and opened the door to deliver a hard flick to his friend's forehead.

"Thanks for almost giving me a heart attack, jackass." The engineer said as he ushered in the duo. He took a quick glance up and down the hallway to make sure it was once again deserted before closing the door and returning to his work, "The entire point of a secret knock is to avoid shit like that."

Jaune rubbed his forehead and smiled apologetically, "Yeah, sorry about that."

"If I may ask, students," Oobleck cut in, "What are you doing here? This is a top-secret operation! It is imperative that it remain as inconspicuous as possible."

"Relax, doc. I gave Jaune the deets when he stopped by on Earth to help with another project. Figured we could use some help testing the radio equipment before we roll out Phase Two later tonight." MacAuley explained, "Speaking of, would you mind grabbing the sniffer again so I can calibrate the relay?"

Oobleck seemed satisfied with MacAuley's explanation and returned to his station with the RF detector. Jaune and Pyrrha sat down next to MacAuley while he pulled some hand tools out of his work bag.

"Anything we can do to help?" Pyrrha asked.

"Yes, actually. You see that boxy-looking shape on the screen there?" Pyrrha nodded as MacAuley pointed to the power wave on the analyzer, "We need to center it on a specific frequency. I was planning on going back and forth between fiddling with the relay and checking the wave on the analyzer, but we could probably save a lot of time if you two can watch the screen for me and tell me if I'm getting warmer or colder as I make the changes. There's a pretty large band gap at one-point-four gigahertz, so let's shoot for centering our signal around there for now."

Pyrrha and Jaune nodded as they watched their friend set up a target centerline on the x-axis. With all of his assistants in place, MacAuley pulled off a panel from the relay and got to work tweaking its internals. The four of them worked for several hours, with MacAuley making adjustments to the relay while the other three took turns using the detector, calling out frequency values, and helping the engineer log configurations to make calibrations easier to carry out in the future.

Then came the tests of the peripheral equipment. Jaune and Pyrrha took radio sets into other parts of the dormitory while MacAuley and Oobleck watched the diagnostic equipment to obtain valuable information on the RF usage.

"Audio sounds pretty crisp." MacAuley commented as he listened in with his own headset to Jaune and Pyrrha's test conversation, "How are we looking power-wise, Doc?"

"Signal is within your designated bandwidth, but the energy is currently at 30 dB down." Oobleck looked up at MacAuley, "If I'm understanding this correctly, that is undesirably high."

MacAuley sighed and sat down next to Oobleck to look at the graph, "It is. I pre-tuned this equipment with Shen back on Earth, but there must be something funky going on with the power regulators that we didn't anticipate." He grinned at Oobleck, "But hey, sounds like you're getting the hang of this signal stuff. So that's pretty cool."

The tests continued, with MacAuley adjusting his equipment to bring the signal outputs within the desired tolerances. Once he was satisfied with the performance of the headsets, he moved on to tuning the devices Bradford planned Phase Two. With the inflow of power into the relay's system calibrated during the headset tests, the second round of adjustments concluded far more quickly than the first. After a fair amount of work, swearing, troubleshooting, and no small amount of caffeine, the four associates congregated in the 'main' room once more several hours after sunset.

"Well, it looks like we're actually ahead of schedule." MacAuley said, checking his watch, "Shen anticipated hiccups during the final assembly and test process, so Bradford allotted us a lot of time to get this bad boy online. You kids feel like getting some celebratory drinks to kill some time before you're up to bat again? I'd say I'm buying, but I don't think the locals would accept Euros, so…"

"I wouldn't mind paying." Pyrrha offered, "And I could use a little food myself. Jaune and I haven't eaten since after our match today. What about you professor?"

Oobleck shook his head, "As much as I would enjoy celebrating the progress of science, I'm afraid I must report back to Ozpin. There are other matters I must attend to."

MacAuley gave the professor a salute, "Then we'll toast to your honor, Doc. We can also test the range on the relay, too. It's supposed to be able to transmit and receive all the way up to Amity, but the fairgrounds should be a good first test."

After they all filed out of the room and left the building, nobody was around to see the door open and close itself a minute later.

* * *

3 o'clock in the morning found the Vytal fairgrounds quiet as a tomb. All the festivities, parties, and general revelry died down several hours prior as the participants decided to get some much-needed sleep before the final round of the tournament started later that day. All the shops were locked up and not a soul could be found wandering the alleyways and dirt roads of the temporary town. Well, except for the patrolling mechs, of course. Security tightened not only after the Breach, but when Ironwood took Ozpin's comment about Atlesian security for the festival as a challenge instead of a observation. Still, aside from the occasional pair of armed robots stomping by, little else disturbed the peace and quiet of the secluded fairground.

Beacon, too, remained silent. The only lights turned on in the entire academy were the curious green spheres that illuminated the top of Beacon's tower. Students advancing in the tournament went to bed early while those no longer competing chose to enjoy a stress-free sleep without butterflies fluttering in their stomachs and keeping them awake. More than that, Goodwitch made it very clear that, as hosts of the Vytal Festival, she expected her students to set a good example for Vale's guests and respect curfew. Nobody who had the pleasure of enrolling in a class with Goodwitch was crazy enough to cross her.

Nobody, that is, except for eight figures that silently slipped out of the main dormitory and made their way through the shadows towards the fair grounds. Not a word passed between any of them until they exfiltrated the school's premises, split into two groups of four, and began to observe the mech patrols from the safety of the nearby tree line.

"So Bradford still hasn't told you about what Ozpin showed him?" Yang whispered to Ruby and Weiss, "Or Winter? I meant to ask you earlier, but never got around to it."

Ruby shook her head, "Said it would be a breach of Ozpin's trust, and that he's not about to jeopardize a new diplomatic relationship over something like that."

"Honestly, I wonder if Winter expects him to blab about it." Weiss sighed, "I've gotten the sense that she… doesn't hold him in the highest regard."

"And I get the sense that your sister doesn't hold _anyone_ in the highest regard who isn't a Schnee." Yang retorted.

"She respects Ironwood." Weiss answered.

"Yeah, and the General can go suck it after throwing Ozpin under the bus in the aftermath of the Breach." Yang said, "Plus, I hear he's thrown some shade at Bradford, too."

"Well, we've got a job to worry about for now." Ruby reminded them, "And even if we don't know what Bradford knows, I don't see how this can be anything but helpful."

Yang nodded, "And it's nice to have comms back up. Sounded like Mac kept Jaune and Pyrrha busy for a couple of hours while he brought it online."

"Well, no time like the present to give it a whirl." Ruby tapped her ear, "Teams, report."

Blake's voice answered with perfect clarity, " _Stealth team is in position and waiting._ "

"Showoffs." Yang muttered.

" _Team JNP is en route!_ " Nora said cheerfully.

" _Nora, that's not a team._ "

" _Well it is right now!_ "

With a suppressed giggle, Ruby keyed her mic again, "How are we looking, Mac?"

" _Metrics are all within expected ranges. My baby is practically purring right now._ "

"Careful, you don't want to offend Blake." Yang joked.

" _Pssshhh, whaaat? Sabretooth and I go_ way _back. No way would she be offended by a cat comment._ "

" _She is listening to this conversation, you know._ " Blake deadpanned.

" _Yeah, yeah. Alright, while you guys are busy getting set up and cracking jokes at my expense, I'm about ready to open up a connection to Central. All I have to do is push the button, and we should be good to go, Captain._ "

Ruby nodded, even though MacAuley had no way of seeing it, "Do it."

The line went dead for a minute, and Ruby assumed that MacAuley was busy working his engineering magic. As she reached the edge of the festival's clearing with Weiss and Yang, she heard another familiar voice in her head.

" _Hello boys and girls, and welcome to another episode of Live and Impossible with your host, Beagle. We've got an exciting mission for you tonight that revolves around staying out of sight and not getting caught by Atlas's two-legged toasters. Is our highly-trained team of operatives up to the challenge? I'm pretty confident that they are, but we will have to see if RNGesus is on our side for this one._ "

" _Nice to see you too, Captain._ " Pyrrha cheerfully greeted.

" _Ah ah ah._ Central. _Since apparently Bradford's got other shit to deal with, he's assigned me to act as the coordinator for this op, so I'll be damned if I'm not giving myself a temporary promotion while the boss is away. Besides, lil' Rubles is the Captain here. So let's get down to it. What have you got for me so far?_ "

" _Lot of patrols._ " Blake reported, " _Looks like Ironwood is concerned about something._ "

" _Maybe it's just a show of force?_ " Yang suggested.

" _At three in the morning?_ " Beagle asked, " _I think Sabretooth is onto something. Either way, we need you guys to get past those patrols somehow. Got any options worked out yet?_ "

Ruby had already been considering solutions even before Beagle brought it up. She had several avenues that could make their life easier, but nothing that could be considered a definitive answer. Either way, may as well start following up on her hunches.

"Pyrrha, how many targets can your Tactical Sensor track?"

" _I've tested it up to about ten. The bigger problem is that the target is lost once it moves out of visual range._ " Pyrrha answered.

" _Doc's actually playing around with a software update in her spare time that should help with that, but I think it can still be useful for now._ " Beagle said, " _If you can get to a high vantage point, it should be pretty easy to keep all the 'bots in your line of sight, yeah?_ "

"Exactly what I was thinking." Ruby said, "You can provide support from the tree line while the rest of us move in. Blake, I want you to ghost your way into the center of the grounds with the heavier population of mechs. Ren, follow her when it's safe."

" _Understood._ "

"The rest of us will stick to the periphery. Bradford's recon teams identified a lot of ideal locations to deploy the motion sensors, and a good chunk of them form a perimeter around the grounds."

Weiss checked her pack for the fourth time to make sure that she still had all of the electronics MacAuley had given her. Motion sensors keyed to link up with the Irishman's wireless network once her team powered them up. Small, silent, and beige, nobody would notice their presence unless they specifically knew what to look for.

Ruby thought that Bradford was pretty smart for coming up with motion sensors for this plan. Surveillance cameras toed a dangerous line with invasion of privacy, while motion sensors simply determined the time and location of activity. The system wouldn't be able to catch a criminal in the middle of a crowd, but it could alert Bradford (and Ruby, who now had access to the network from her scroll) to the presence of someone loitering somewhere well past curfew.

" _There's an opening in the patrol pattern coming up in the next couple of seconds._ " Ren said.

" _Confirmed._ " Pyrrha agreed, already in position, " _Shadow Team will have a small window to slip past the Knight's in five seconds._ "

" _Wish we had a cool name like Shadow Team._ "

" _Nora…_ "

After five seconds, Ruby had no indication of neither Blake nor Ren actually breaking from the tree line to infiltrate the fairgrounds proper, but she supposed that was the point of picking them in the first place. In any case, Pyrrha's confirmation that they had, in fact, moved on their target provided all the evidence Ruby needed, and so she ordered the rest of her team to carry out their own part of the objective. With a silent wave, Yang walked off to join up with Nora and left her sister alone with Weiss.

"What if it's something really groundbreaking?" Weiss asked as she carefully advanced with Ruby. Apparently her mind was still stuck on their previous conversation, "Like magic?"

Ruby actually stopped in her tracks to stare at Weiss, "I have the ability to move faster than the eye can see, your Semblance lets you slow down time, we just got back from a world of zombifying insects, cyborg abominations, and mind control powers, and you're hung up on magic?"

"I… Fair point." Weiss admitted. The two of them reached the main gate and got to work. Weiss pulled out one of the sensors from her bag and handed it to Ruby.

" _Don't forget, the recon teams left little calling cards to mark locations they felt would be ideal._ " MacAuley reminded them, " _A nickel on a table, a German shot glass leaning against a booth, or a McDonalds business card stuck in the grass. You're free to ignore them if you disagree, but Bradford's been sending some of XCOM's best Scouts on these casual ops over the last couple of days._ "

"Understood. Let's get to work, team."

With Pyrrha staying back to provide status updates on the droid patrols, the rest of RWBY and JNPR rigged the fairgrounds with MacAuley's supply of sensors. Under the cover of darkness, they installed and camouflaged the hardware so that anyone enjoying the festival would have to be actively looking for the gadgets to find them. And even then, the sensors were so small that Ruby suspected mere knowledge of their existence wouldn't be enough to find them anyway.

The mech patrols proved to be a major annoyance, and Ruby figured that their presence easily doubled the time it took for her team to finish setting everything up. Because discovery was absolutely, positively not an option, Ruby had made it clear to everyone to err on the side of caution when it came to avoiding discovery. Even Yang and Nora, the two loudest and most gung-ho members of the squad, understood the delicacy of the situation and managed to stay out of sight with Pyrrha's assistance. Ruby didn't sit completely idly while waiting for the patrols to pass, however. She pulled out her scroll and opened up Vahlen's software that MacAuley installed for her before the operation.

A crude map appeared on her screen, and glowing nodes that signified active motion sensors dotted the fairgrounds, with more coming online each time she checked. The locations of the mechs pinged on the screen as they came within range of an active sensor, and Ruby noted that her team achieved near 100% coverage of the fairgrounds by the time the last pair reported all sensors online. Ruby checked her scroll and saw that the Knights remained tagged no matter where they marched on their patrols.

"Good work, team." She called out, "All sensors are reporting operational, and I have a lock on all patrols in and around the fairgrounds. Looks like we're all set to move onto the next objective."

" _Provided MacAuley's jury-rigged booster antenna lasts for more than a few hours._ "

" _He is listening to this conversation, jackass._ " MacAuley said.

" _Easy there, big boy. Just a joke._ "

Ruby rolled her eyes at the banter, "C'mon, let's get moving. Our work here is done, but there's still plenty to do before sunrise. We can sleep when we're back on the Temple Ship."

With a chorus of assent from her squadmates, Ruby and Weiss picked up their equipment and made for the tree line once more.

* * *

For the last hour, Winter neither made a single movement nor uttered a single sound save for her quiet breathing. At her superior officer's request, Winter agreed to keep an eye on her sister and her team that evening. He cited some suspicions after Ruby had a meeting with Doctor Polendina's daughter, and while Winter wasn't foolish enough to wonder how Ironwood had obtained such evidence, she had a hard time believing that her own sister would be complicit in… skullduggery. Regardless, orders were orders and so Winter continued to spend the rest of the afternoon and evening with Weiss, said her goodbyes for the night, and then immediately doubled back to observe… no, spy. No point in trying to make the deed sound less ugly than it truly was.

With the surveillance tools of her trade, Winter watched as the four huntresses talked in their room. The other team, JNPR, joined them shortly thereafter. She didn't dare get close enough to use audio equipment, so the stealth specialist was forced to rely on lip reading. And while a maddening portion of the conversation took place out of her field of view, Winter managed to catch enough to learn that they planned to do _something_ around 2 am. She also picked up a curious word that she didn't recognize.

Excom.

For a moment, she wondered if her lip reading skills had slipped, but then she saw another of the students say the exact same thing. Perhaps it was a codeword for their little late night operation? Winter didn't know, but she fully intended to see what Weiss and her friends planned to do under the cover of night.

That idea brought Winter to where she was now: crouched in a tree, muscles stiff from remaining motionless, and watching as RWBY and JNPR slowly moved about the fairgrounds. She saw them moving in pairs, carrying small bags and stopping to crouch and fiddle with some sort of electronic device every few minutes. She continued to watch as Ruby tapped her ear, nodded at whoever was on the other end of the line, and gave a thumbs-up to Weiss. They took cover from a nearby patrol of mechs (Winter would have to talk with Ironwood about how easy it was for some students to evade his top-of-the-line robotic soldiers), before leaving the fairgrounds. From what she'd been able to observe, the two teams still had plenty left in store for their midnight jaunt. Winter planned to follow them and see if she could collect any more damning evidence, though she wondered what could possibly have caused her dear sister to fall so low.

Well, she had a hunch. Excom.

Ironwood definitely would need to know about this.

* * *

Neo lazily twirled her umbrella as she invisibly watched the Atlesian Specialist watch the kids. After years of playing her personal brand of Hide-and-Seek, Neo had learned how to carefully mask her presence to the senses of her mark's Aura. She figured out early on that ill intent was the surest way to set off internal alarms for most huntsmen, which (now that she thought about it) may have played a role in shaping her whimsical attitude towards life. Probably helped offset her occasional spurts of murderous fantasies Maybe she'd bring that up with Roman when she got the chance. It would be pretty funny to see his reaction to a question like that coming out of the blue. Dust, she missed having him around.

In any case, she had no difficulty avoiding ill intent tonight. The Stoic, Snooty Schnee was actually making Neo's job ten times easier tonight, whether she realized it or not. Why bother sticking her own pretty little neck out to sabotage the children trying to play heroes when she could just let the Atlesian spy stir up distrust between two Kingdoms all on her own? Sure it may have been fun to add a Schnee-shaped notch to her umbrella, but the disciplined actions and attitude of this one set of Neo's own set of internal alarms. No, tonight she would remain safely out of the spotlight. Neo still has plenty of information to relay back to the boss lady, and she managed to accomplish her secondary objective without having to lift a single finger. Or foot. Whatever.

With her work (or lack thereof) done, Neo picked herself up, lightly dusted off her jacket, and set off for the dormitories. Cinder probably wouldn't appreciate getting woken up at four in the morning, which made the prospect of doing so all the more amusing for Neo. Heck, the chance to see a groggy, bleary-eyed fire witch with a bad case of bed head almost made the risk of death-by-fire worth it.

Almost.

* * *

A/N: Okay, wow. I asked for thoughts and opinions about Aura last time, and you all came out in _droves_ to pitch in your two cents. Some of you may have noticed that I wasn't as talkative these last two weeks as I usually am, but I promise that I read everything that got posted. Thank you all for taking the time to write your perception of how Aura works, and even more so for enjoying this story as it moves along. We're getting closer to the end of the Vytal arc. Shit isn't hitting the fan quite yet, but the wheels are starting to turn.


	13. A Line Crossed

Bradford took the elevator up to Ozpin's office, confused about two things. First, why did Ozpin want to see him so urgently? Second, why did Ozpin ask him to arrive on Remnant at a specified location and travel on foot to his office? Something felt off, and Bradford's fight-or-flight instincts started kicking in by the time the elevator doors opened up to reveal the headmaster's office. Inside, Bradford saw five occupants: Ozpin, at his desk; Glynda, standing at Ozpin's eight o'clock and looking irate; Qrow, skulking in the shadows; and General Ironwood flanked by Winter, both wearing impassive expressions. Five sets of eyes stared at Bradford as he walked into the room, and their faces led the Central Officer to briefly wonder if he was walking towards death by firing squad. Even Ozpin looked somewhat somber as he stood up from his seat to greet the newcomer.

"Thank you for coming, Captain Bradford. I apologize for requesting your presence on such short notice, but the General has matters he wishes to discuss that are directly related to you and your recon division."

The pointed look that Ozpin gave him told Bradford that Ironwood didn't intend to give him a pat on the back. He needed to tread carefully.

"Very well," he said, casting a glance at Ironwood before looking back at the headmaster, "You have my attention."

Ozpin folded his hands on his desk and stared evenly at Bradford, "We have reason to believe that you sent two of my student teams on a mission to secretly install surveillance equipment early this morning. Not only did they bug the Vytal Festival's fairgrounds and sections of this school, but they discussed plans to do the same for the city of Vale as well."

"Do you deny it?" Ironwood asked, giving Bradford a hard look.

And suddenly, everything became clearer. Ozpin had given permission for Bradford's plan when he first brought it up after meeting with JNPR. Clearly, Ironwood had found out somehow, and Ozpin needed to save face by appearing to be just as upset about the whole situation. A common occurrence in espionage, and Bradford understood completely why the headmaster needed to keep his hands clean of all this. Bradford needed to talk his way out of this one without expecting much help from the headmaster. No direct help, at least.

"No sir." Bradford said, "I take full responsibility for the actions of RWBY and JNPR this morning."

"Are you going to offer an explanation, then?"

Bradford nodded, "Only that information is the most important asset that any commander can ask for. I have spent the last three weeks in a position where information was scarce, and I lost a lot of good men and women because of it. If I can situate myself now where I have more information available to me and my scouts, you can be certain that I'll make it happen."

Silence for a few moments, then Ironwood slowly responded, "It sounds like you're preparing for war, Captain."

The Central Officer held his gaze without flinching, "In a world overrun by monsters that can be summoned by the slightest ripple of fear in a population's emotions, wouldn't you be?"

"Be that as it may, the council has given me authority over this event's security, not you." Ironwood said, "And my security is there for the people to see, to make them feel safe. What you are doing is effectively spying, Bradford."

"And you wouldn't say the same for the actions of your operative?" Bradford asked, nodding at Winter. Silence fell over the room, only broken by Qrow's 'Oh snap' as Ironwood and Winter exchanged mildly stunned looks.

' _Good thing I guessed correctly.'_

Bradford raised an eyebrow, acting like this assertion was the most obvious thing in the world, "What, you think I couldn't figure out how you had 'reason to believe' that this happened? Miss Schnee arrives two days ago, spends time with her sister's team, who she knows was closely involved with my scouts during our latest operation, and then you happen to find out that RWBY was doing work for me at three in the morning? In fact…"

Bradford dug his scroll out of his pocket and made a few rapid keystrokes.

"Bear with me for a moment, if you don't mind," he said as he pulled up the tracking program Vahlen developed for the motion sensor system. He accessed the archived data and quickly flipped through the early-morning timestamps. Ironwood raised an eyebrow at Winter while Bradford called out his progress, "Alright… there's Team RWBY… and I'm assuming those are the Atlesian Knights you have patrolling the grounds. Quite an impressive security force, General. Right, off goes Team RWBY, aaaaaaaand… aha."

He passed off the scroll to Winter with a small grin, "I do believe that would be you, Miss Schnee."

Qrow's flask stifled his laughter as Bradford's comment caught the huntsman mid-swig. Rather than let Qrow continue to fill the awkward moment with his painful sounds of amusement, Bradford pressed on, "So it seems that Atlas is just as guilty of the skullduggery you're trying to lay upon me, and you know what? That's not a bad thing. Given the world we live in, secrecy is a necessary evil. I picked that time for Team RWBY's mission not because I hoped to keep it from people like you, but to keep it from the general populace. While it's unfortunate that keeping them in the dark looks shady or underhanded, I am doing so to negate the possibility of fear increasing as a result of my actions. I need information, General, but I think we can agree that the people don't need to get worried about _why_ I need it. And after the last time I was asked to be here with your Specialist, I don't think it's difficult to understand my motives."

While Ironwood continued to digest Bradford's words, Winter spoke up, "You seem to believe that your intentions are noble, and I won't try to imply otherwise. However, given that Atlas is charged with the festival's security, why didn't you bring us in on your plan?"

"Probably because you would have rejected it." Qrow answered, finally recovered from his choking fit, "Let's be real here: if some _nobody_ approached you and said 'Hey, can I put cameras-"

"Motion sensors." Bradford corrected, "It's an important distinction."

"… Whatever. 'Hey, can I put motion sensors up around the fairgrounds? It'll help with security,' you'd be offended at the implication that Jimmy's measures are apparently not enough for Mr. Jagoff. So why would Brad even bother with going to you if he already knows the answer before the question is asked?"

Glynda spoke for the first time, "While you're not necessarily wrong, Qrow, Operative Schnee has a point. How can we hope to provide a safe festival if we can't even trust each other? Actions like these plant seeds of doubt, and the people that we are supposed to call allies suddenly begin to wonder if we're not enemies instead."

"I think Glynda is right." Bradford agreed, "We're going about this the wrong way. Atlas is in charge of security. Everyone is in agreement about that. However, it's important to remember that you aren't the only ones who have a vested interest in the success of this event and the well-being of its attendants. While we will leave the show of strength to Atlas to help give the guests a much-needed peace of mind, The Valean Recon Division simply wishes to do what we do best for the greater good of everyone's safety."

"The important thing here is that no ill intentions were meant by Captain Bradford's actions." Ozpin said, trying to come back to the specific matter at hand, "Perhaps we can make the most of this and move forward in a manner that is beneficial for everyone involved?"

"I'm… not sure what you mean, Ozpin." Ironwood admitted.

Ozpin looked at Winter, "Miss Schnee, it appears Captain Bradford's records show that you approached his equipment after my students left the fairgrounds, correct? What did you find?"

Winter refused to meet Ozpin's gaze, "Nothing, sir. I… ah… couldn't find the actual hardware even though I watched your students install it."

"Hah!"

"Qrow." Ozpin warned, eyes narrowed. He looked back at Ironwood, "The point I'm trying to make is that the skills my students have gained under Captain Bradford's leadership are valuable, as is the technology that his team uses. Why attempt to stop the work of Vale's Recon Division when you can use it to ensure the safety of the public? This is not about bragging rights, James, but ensuring the continued peace between the four kingdoms."

Ironwood looked at Ozpin, then Winter, before finally settling his gaze on Bradford. He sighed, rubbed his temple, and nodded, "Alright. I'd hate for this to sour the relationship between Atlas and Vale. I would, however, like to be fully aware of any reconnaissance projects your Captain plans to implement in the future. I'm still the head of security for this festival, and so I need to know all my options if the time comes to exercise them."

"Agreed." Ozpin said, smiling, "I don't think we could have come to a better resolution than this, James. Thank you for understanding."

"One more thing, though." Ironwood said.

"Of course."

"What is Excom?"

Bradford's stomach twisted into knots for a fraction of a second before Ozpin answered without missing a beat, "It stands for Extraterrestrial Combat Unit."

The Central Officer joined the two Atlesian dignitaries in throwing Ozpin an incredulous look.

"Extraterr-..." Ironwood interrupted himself, sighed, and tried again, "What is that supposed to mean? Why does a Recon Division have a Combat Unit?"

"Well first of all, reconnaissance tends to take place in high-risk locations well beyond the safety of the four Kingdoms, so it should come as no surprise that Bradford's unit has combat training. The name Excom is a bit of an inside joke, basically stemming for the common sentiment amongst the operatives that -you'll have to pardon my Mistrali- 'If bullshit like the Grimm is par for the course around here, then who's to say we won't be dealing with fucking aliens somewhere down the line?' "

For a second time in as many minutes, Qrow choked on his flask.

"To combat the stresses of the ever-present danger in their line of work," Ozpin continued, "The men and women of the Valean Recon Division have developed an impressive array of gallows humor. Their moniker for the division is simply an example of their particular brand of comedy."

Ironwood sighed, "I see. I apologize for troubling you for an explanation."

"Not at all." The headmaster replied cheerfully, "I've grown rather fond of the name myself. It would be quite exciting to make contact with alien life, wouldn't you agree?"

"Only if it was peaceful, perhaps." Ironwood answered, "Though your Excom operatives seem to think otherwise. Thank you for your time, Ozpin." He nodded at Bradford, "Captain."

After Ironwood left the room (with his embarrassed and uncharacteristically quiet officer in tow), Qrow let out an impressed whistle, "That was a damn impressive speech you pulled out of your ass there, Brad. Nicely done."

"I'm more impressed with Ozpin's quick thinking for that last bit." Bradford admitted, "I think my heart stopped for a second when Ironwood asked about XCOM."

"I apologize for not warning you beforehand." Ozpin added, "My colleague needed to believe that I wasn't going behind his back with the festival's security, and I didn't get an opportunity to tip you off about the nature of the meeting."

"I understand. I'm just glad that I managed to help smooth things over." Bradford raised an eyebrow at Qrow, "Though we probably could have avoided this if our Spymaster thwarted Winter's investigation in the first place."

Qrow gave Bradford a hard look before his face relaxed into a smile, "I knew there was a reason I liked you."

"Back to the point," Glynda said with an eye roll, "We have just agreed to inform Ironwood of any future projects we plan to execute during the festival. _Are_ there any other projects that we have in mind?"

"Aside from the motion sensors and the comm relay-"

"- which we conveniently left out of our disclosure to the General." Glynda pointed out.

"The only other point of interest that remains is a sweep of the CCTS's software. Given what we've learned from our analysis of RWBY's scrolls, my research staff is developing a diagnostic suite to achieve this. Though it would go faster if we had access to the software architecture of the CCTS itself." The Central Officer added with a look at Ozpin.

"While the CCTS is a gift from Atlas to the four Kingdoms, they are adamant that it remains their proprietary technology," Ozpin explained.

Qrow snorted, "For the sake of the system's security, or some other bullshit."

"Then why was some intruder able to gain access so easily?" Bradford asked.

"We don't know if the infiltrator actually did anything," Ozpin reminded him, "Ironwood's initial sweep of the system revealed nothing. But if some malicious package was in fact injected into the CCTS, your question does raise some worrying concerns."

The Central Officer nodded, "Then it sounds like I need to get my people hustling on the project. I trust that you'll relay our intentions to General Ironwood? Neither my Chief Engineer nor my Chief Scientist is exactly qualified for covert operations."

"I'll let him know." Glynda confirmed.

Bradford's comm piece chirped in his ear, followed by the voice of his Field Commander, " _Central, we've received notice that the Council is requesting another… ah… discussion about a resolution to the Temple Ship issue. They plan to open up a channel in about an hour. Thought you should know._ "

"Understood. Have the Major bring the ship around to Rally Point Oscar. I'm finishing up a meeting with Ozpin."

" _We're already there, sir. Techs are warming up the relay now._ "

Bradford sighed. These meetings with the Council never ended well, and he wondered how they expected this one to go any differently.

"More business to attend to?" The headmaster asked.

Bradford nodded, "No rest for the wicked. It seems that duty calls back on Earth. We'll be in touch."

The familiar purple portal of the Hyperwave Relay opened up, and Bradford stepped through. The transdimensional connection closed with a faint _pop_ and left the remaining three occupants alone in the room with the methodical ticking of clock gears.

* * *

"It was good of you to come visit us, Doctor!" Weiss said. Weiss, Vahlen, and the rest of RWBY walked down the path towards the fairgrounds. With the singles round starting in a couple of hours, the team decided that breakfast would be a good way to start the morning with the Chief Scientist before they had to prepare for the tournament and Vahlen met with Ozpin.

Vahlen smiled at Weiss, "Even though I have access to instantaneous travel that can take me anywhere with near-perfect precision, I felt it couldn't hurt to arrive a few hours early. My subordinates in the labs all know what their tasks are for the next couple of days, so spending some extra time on Remnant felt like the right choice."

"Of course it was!" Ruby exclaimed, skipping along next to Weiss, "I just wish you had more time to be a tourist."

"I'm sure that things will settle down after this affair with the Vytal Festival is finished." The doctor said, "The time dilation is a bit… unfortunate, but we'll find a way to work around that. Trust me, I have plenty of motivation to spend some time engaged in field work on Remnant."

Blake listened to the chatter between the doctor and her teammates while struggling with a personal dilemma. She really should have brought it to Vahlen's attention sooner, but Blake couldn't bring herself to make the jump and have a conversation with the doctor in her lab. And digital communication was out of the question due to Bradford's lockdown, but something like this warranted a face-to-face meeting, anyway. Given her history with the White Fang, the idea that Blake was suffering from PTSD felt humiliating. But now that she had Vahlen here on Remnant and not on another world, in a different dimension… Blake didn't really have an excuse anymore. Especially with the finals rounds coming up, she needed to get some advice from Vahlen to avoid another repeat incident of the fight with ABRN.

"Hey guys?" Four heads swiveled around to look at Blake curiously, and she realized that she hadn't said _anything_ during their entire walk from Beacon until now, "I… uh… do you mind if I borrow Vahlen for a moment? I just need to talk to her about… things." She avoided eye contact with her friends, casting a sideways look at the ground instead.

After a moment of confused silence, Ruby shrugged, "Sure thing, Blake. We'll go on ahead and try to find somewhere to eat. Take your time."

"Thanks, Ruby." Blake and Vahlen watched the rest of RWBY walk off before the doctor returned her attention to the troubled huntress, a clinical expression crossing her face.

"Is something wrong with the prosthetics? I know they've been field tested during operations on Earth, but Bradford told me about your tournament fights. They sounded rather intense."

"No, my limbs are working just fine, Vahlen." Blake explained. She tapped her head, "It's this that I'm worried about."

The doctor raised an eyebrow, "Blunt-force trauma? I was under the impression that your Aura protected against that."

Blake sighed. She didn't want to spell it out for Vahlen, but she didn't want to play 20 Questions, either, "During my team's first fight, something happened that triggered a flashback to my run-in with a Chryssalid on the Newfoundland op. My survival instincts took control of my body, and I… well, I used excessive force to defend myself. Ruby had to knock me down so that I wouldn't… do anything I'd regret." She finished barely above a whisper.

Vahlen gave Blake a sad smile, "I apologize for playing stupid, but I wanted to hear you say the words yourself. Ever since Bradford mentioned your… erratic behavior during the first fight, I've been wondering when you'd come to see me."

"I'm sorry for taking so long." Blake mumbled, "It's just that it's embarrassing that this is happening, you know?"

"It's not something to be ashamed of. You spent months fighting for your life, Blake. That kind of stress won't go away easily."

"But so did the rest of my team!" Blake argued. "And I've spent years with the White Fang before that! Now that I agreed to represent our team in the final round tomorrow, what if I do something again? I won't have Ruby to bail me out this time."

The two of them stood in silence, letting Blake's words hang between them. Vahlen knew that Blake had every right to be worried, especially given the unique dangers of public emotion on Remnant. Going berserk on an opponent, especially a helpless one, in a fit of rage would be an extremely bad turn of events for a festival working to spread peace among the nations of the world. Vahlen guessed that this problem didn't come up very often for the Vytal Festival because the students participating in the tournament don't have the opportunity to develop serious cases of PTSD during their training. Given the circumstances surrounding RWBY and JNPR (and Blake in particular, with her near-death experience), this could be a serious problem.

It surprised Vahlen to hear that Ruby appointed Blake as their candidate for the final round. If Blake herself had concerns about her own ability to exhibit restraint, why would Ruby still ask her to continue on in the tournament? From the reports of the operatives who were present for the second round, Blake didn't have a repeat performance when she and Ruby faced off against the students from Atlas. Even so, going into a stressful tournament fight with a rattled psyche was less-than-ideal, especially since Vahlen had seen past instances of Blake struggling to cope with her problems.

Maybe that was why Ruby picked her after all, the doctor mused. Doing the safe thing and promoting herself for the finals would only reinforce Blake's fears that she was damaged and unfit to fight. The potential effects of that shame could last for an incredibly long time, perhaps even leave a permanent mark on Blake's confidence. Instead, Ruby's choice sent Blake a very clear and unmistakable message: I trust you. You are not weak and you do not need someone to hold your hand.

Vahlen hummed thoughtfully, "Well, you will have Ruby to bail you out, since she'll be in the stands for your match, but that's not why you came to me. For the short term, I do have medication that can help calm your nerves. It might also hinder your fight-or-flight reflexes, however, so I'm not sure how much you'll want before a tournament match. For the long term, we can also resume with the cognitive behavioral therapy we worked on together during the war after your… incident. If you recall, it's a much slower healing process, so it won't help for your upcoming fight, but I'm sure you're interested in getting your life back."

"I wish I talked to you about this earlier so we had more than a few hours to get this fixed." Blake sighed.

"I recommend you don't approach the situation with that attitude." Vahlen said, "PTSD isn't the same as trying to glue a chipped piece of a vase back together and calling it 'fixed.' It's a road, Blake, as I'm sure you can recall me telling you during past conversations. The destination is your ability to coexist with the stress and not let it control you."

Vahlen had a point, and Blake knew it. Blake just wished that she didn't have to deal with this kind of bullshit, especially when it seemed like her teammates were getting along just fine. Still, trying to rush a 'cure' might just make things worse, and so Blake needed to do things the right way or not at all.

"Perhaps you would benefit from meditating with Ren before your match later?" The doctor asked, "I understand that meditation is usually an individual activity, but Ren is very in-tune with spiritual and mental health. I'm sure he'd be willing to help if you are comfortable with telling him about your issue, and I know that Bradford would be more than happy to provide you with some time and solitude aboard the ship."

Blake nodded, "I'll… think about it. Thank you, Doctor."

"Thank you for trusting me enough to seek my advice and assistance." Vahlen answered with a smile, "I still remember the first time you revealed to me your secret." She nodded at Blake's uncovered ears, "And it's good to know that I haven't violated that trust."

The pair resumed walking along the path towards the fairgrounds to catch up with the rest of RWBY, unaware of the green-haired huntress using her semblance to remain concealed from Blake's superior senses.

"Well that was productive." Emerald mused as she left to report her findings to her mistress. With the plans they had in mind in the event that RWBY put forward Blake as their champion, news about a sedative necessitated some modifications. Good thing Cinder decided to send her this time around instead of that childish psychopath.

* * *

"Central Officer Bradford. Thank you for agreeing to once again speak with this… council of nations on behalf of your staff at the XCOM Project."

Bradford let out a deep breath. With everything going on regarding Remnant, dealing with the Council of Poorly-Lit Bald People was the last thing he wanted to do. And yet, he knew that matters needed to be resolved before relations worsened and the Council decided that pursuing drastic actions against XCOM outweighed the benefits that Bradford's forces offered against the Grimm. One way or another, their differences of opinion needed to be reconciled, and their relationship needed to be repaired.

Today.

One small comfort for Bradford was the sight of his Field Commander standing at attention next to him. Ever since Bradford's first visit to Remnant, he'd taken Shen's advice and passed off some of his daily tasks and duties on to his officers. If there was anyone he wanted batting for him during this meeting, Van Doorn would be his number one pick.

"It's my pleasure, councilmen. I hope you don't mind that my Field Commander joins us. Given that he is the ranking officer of our ground forces, I felt that it was important that he be included in this discussion."

"His presence is… more than welcome." The head councilman said, "We are… pleased to have you with us, Field Commander. Perhaps now we will get somewhere with these… negotiations."

Bradford and Van Doorn shared a look before the latter relaxed his stance and answered, "That is our hope, councilman. Shall we get down to business?"

"We shall." The central figure answered, nodding his shadowy head and returning his attention to Bradford, "For weeks now, you have… stonewalled any and every request we've made to… assess the nature of XCOM's greatest prize from the war."

Bradford would have argued that RWBY and JNPR earned that title, but he knew what the councilman was actually referring to, "The Temple Ship?"

"The Temple Ship." The Councilman confirmed.

"You mean the central hub that XCOM uses to rapidly deploy strike teams and provide indirect support against the Grimm incursions that have been growing as of late?" Van Doorn asked cheerfully, "The very same hub where the world's brightest minds are working to develop a permanent solution to the Grimm infestation, and where sweeping advances in technology, both civilian and military, are underway for the betterment of mankind?"

In all the times he'd spoken with the Council before, Bradford had never heard the lead councilman let out an exasperated sigh, "… Yes. That one."

After taking a moment to enjoy his Field Commander's comment, Bradford took a deep breath and readied himself for the unpleasant part of the meeting. When it came down to it, all of the problems and disagreements revolving around the Temple Ship stemmed from the fact that neither side trusted the other. The Council allowed XCOM to remain in operation because of the service it provided against the Grimm, but they made it abundantly clear that Bradford needed to give them what they wanted if he wished to avoid XCOM's dissolution after Vahlen found a way to eradicate the Grimm. And of course, what they wanted was full access to the Temple Ship.

Honestly, Bradford didn't blame them. Big superweapon stocked with lots of alien technology and what was likely the mothership of the entire invasion? If the shoe was on the other foot, Bradford knew he'd have asked for the right to come aboard as well. What bothered him was the way they asked for it. Their tone became immediately hostile when Bradford showed the first sign of hesitation, and they spoke as if Bradford owed them the right to come aboard, inspect, and worst of all, take possession of the ship for further research and analysis. Perhaps it was the mental stress issues that Bradford had been dealing with at the time, but that did not sit well with the Central Officer at all. Even if he couldn't see their faces, he swore he could practically feel the greed in the lead councilman's voice during that fateful meeting where everything started to fall apart between the two parties.

"With respect, councilman," Bradford began, "I think you and I both want what's best for the world. I think the urgency and stubbornness in both our actions reflects how concerned we are with ushering our planet into a safer period of time on the heels of this war."

"Or perhaps if you didn't come across as so hostile and paranoid, the Central Officer might be more willing to meet with you halfway." Van Doorn mused, half-sarcastically.

Stunned silence from both sides. One comment was funny, but Bradford worried that if Van Doorn kept this up that the council would entertain no further thoughts of cooperation.

"… Is your Field Commander always this… blunt, Bradford?"

Van Doorn wasn't finished yet, it seemed, "You have to be, sir, if you want to survive on the battlefield. I know that you and your council play an important politicking game from your comfortable seats that requires a lot of posturing, false pretenses, and double-talk, but on the ground? Everyone is on the same page, or everyone is dead."

"Do remind yourself, General, that the… purpose of this Council is, first and foremost, the survival of the human race. The Temple Ship presents a very serious danger to that… objective, whether it is in friendly hands or not. While your Central Officer has proven himself to be a staunch ally to our… cause, the power contained within the ship cannot be denied."

Van Doorn glanced at Bradford, silently asking for permission to continue. Bradford shrugged, "You're clearly on a roll, Pete. Be my guest."

The Field Commander nodded before turning to answer the Council, "Your statement demonstrates that your loyalty is to Earth. It is the same for us here at XCOM. After all the efforts we have gone through to save it from the invasion, and now to save it from the Grimm, you can hardly deny it to be so."

"No one here is denying your… dedication to the cause, Field Commander."

"And neither are we denying yours." Van Doorn agreed, "And yet we remain at a standstill even so. I think that speaks volumes of how much we all respect and fear the awesome power of this ship. That despite the fact we are all on the same team, neither side is willing to make the trust fall and take the first step."

"We have asked time and again for-"

"For complete obedience to your wishes." Van Doorn interrupted, "You wish for us to bend the knee and accept your demands, as heavy as they are, at face value. That is simply not possible, councilman."

In that moment, Bradford figured out what Van Doorn was doing. While the Long War was mostly kept under wraps, propaganda was still used in an effort to suppress wide-spread panic. And Van Doorn, with all his achievements and heroism, was the quintessential poster boy for that campaign. Even the Council, wherever they were hiding, had to be aware of the Field Commander's many exploits. The fact that Bradford never heard a word about the St. Louis courthouse incident after his initial report was evidence enough. And now, he was taking a gamble and using his charisma and 'Hero of the People' fame to persuade the Council to change its tact.

Bradford wondered why he hadn't asked Van Doorn to attend one of these sooner.

The two men stared at the video screen in stony silence. When it was obvious the Field Commander had no intention of expanding on his statement, the councilman continued.

"Perhaps… a new approach is required."

Van Doorn smiled, "Perhaps."

"I… assume that you have terms of your own for us to move beyond this stalemate."

That surprised Bradford. The act of extending the first move to XCOM was, by all accounts, an olive branch if he'd ever seen one. Bradford and Van Doorn had the floor to lay out the first round of ground rules for their cooperation.

 _Integrity,_ Bradford remembered saying to Van Doorn when they had their first frank conversation about the Council situation, _If they show even a small amount of integrity, then maybe I'd be willing to work with them. But so long as they hide behind their shadows and make demands of me, they can go fuck themselves._

"Showing us your faces would be a good start, councilor." Van Doorn suggested, "The aliens no longer walk among us, so I think it's hardly appropriate that we still don't know who you are, where you're from, or anything else that you already know about the rest of us."

"That is quite the… interesting demand, Field Commander. However, it is one that I am willing to comply with if it means we can… resolve this matter with expedience. Is there anything else?"

Van Doorn shrugged, "Only that we would like to know why the hell you want to poke around this ship and what you plan to do with whatever you find. We already have plenty of researchers and engineers documenting everything, and we send you regular reports on our findings."

"Reports that you have the luxury of… omitting anything that you feel is better kept to yourselves. Please, try to see this from our perspective. We simply wish to have a firsthand look with the help of a… trusted scientific professional who knows what we are specifically interested in and does not have a potential reason to… keep secrets from us."

Bradford sighed, though he couldn't help but be unsurprised. As charismatic as Van Doorn was, he could only do so much in a single conversation to influence the Council. And the Central Officer could understand their concerns... in a perverse, paranoid sense, anyway. Even so, he wanted to throw the councilman's statement about not questioning XCOM's loyalty back into his stupid, shadowy face. Reason won out, however, and the Central Officer adopted a more diplomatic answer.

"Very well." Bradford said, "Bring any reasonable number of scientists that you wish, but understand that they will be under constant supervision during the entirety of their stay aboard the Temple Ship."

"That is… an acceptable stipulation."

"And bring yourself, councilman." Van Doorn added.

Silence. That must have struck a nerve. The Field Commander grinned, "That's right, if you're so keen on developing trust with the Central Officer and myself, perhaps a face-to-face meeting is in order. You can even bring a security detail if you are concerned that we'd try something underhanded while you're here."

The silence continued after Van Doorn finished. Bradford started to wonder if Van Doorn had gone too far, until the councilman finally answered, "Agreed."

"Excellent. When would you like to tour our facilities with your little delegation?"

"In three days time. While we will need to get our… logistics in order, this Council of Nations is eager to put this… turbulent chapter of our continued partnership behind us."

Three days. Unless Bradford's estimates were off, the Vytal Festival would be close to winding down its tournament by that point. Perfect timing if he felt crazy enough to reveal to the councilman the _real_ secret of the Temple Ship. They'd have to sooner or later, and Van Doorn suspected that the council wouldn't be too happy if they were intentionally kept in the dark about the Hyperwave Relay's little 'side effect' even after the (pseudo) show-of-trust that came about from this meeting.

Bradford nodded, "That works for us. We look forward to the meeting, councilman."

"As do I, Central Officer. And remember: we… will be watching."

The screen went black. Van Doorn raised an eyebrow at Bradford, "I mean, I've heard the rumors among the men, but… do they really end every communication like that?"

* * *

Dr. Vahlen quietly hummed to herself as she waited for the elevator to arrive at its destination in the CCTS tower. She checked her scroll (issued to her by Ozpin, as her usual tablet would look out-of-place on Remnant) and made sure all of her diagnostic programs were organized and ready to go for her work. Vahlen wished that Bradford could have postponed this until after Blake's tournament match. After a meeting with Ozpin in his office, she took a detour with Blake and Ren back to the Temple Ship before returning to Remant once more to begin her assignment from Bradford. Given the randomized nature of the combatants for the final round, however, she knew that Bradford couldn't afford for her to put off the CCTS visit for several hours.

"Do you always hum when you have nothing else to do?" Winter asked.

And of course, part of the assignment was to demonstrate cooperation with the Atlesian dignitaries. After hearing stories from both Dr. Shen and MacAuley, Vahlen had hoped she could work with Doctor Oobleck. But she would have to be satisfied with Weiss's sister, Winter Schnee. When Vahlen stopped by on the Temple Ship to get Blake's medication, Bradford pulled her aside and gave her a brief rundown of his experience with Winter. While the news of her apparent distaste for XCOM saddened Vahlen, the doctor found some amusement in the fact that her own sense of professionalism would come in handy for once.

"I apologize if you find it distracting, Miss Schnee." Vahlen said, closing up her scroll and stuffing it back into her pocket, "Though I must warn you that I tend to mumble and hum to myself when I'm working under pressure. It helps me focus."

"I'm surprised your colleagues haven't pointed it out to you before." Winter said.

The elevator door dinged, and the two women stepped out. The main room of the CCT revealed a modest morning crowd of people wishing to send messages to friends and loved ones overseas. Vahlen followed Winter across the floor and past an access door guarded by a security officer who let Winter past with a smart salute.

"They have." Vahlen said once she was finally alone again with Winter, "But when you've made a name for yourself with a portfolio of impressive scientific accomplishments, people tend to overlook your quirks. Some even start to develop the habits for themselves. Like Weiss."

Winter sighed, "Let's not talk about my sister, if you don't mind."

Right, Bradford warned Vahlen about that. Well, at least they had arrived at their destination so that Vahlen could direct her efforts towards more useful pursuits. Winter led her into a room at the end of the hall that vaguely reminded her of the Satellite Nexus facilities back at the old Anthill. While the CCT didn't have a fancy rotating dish array simultaneously tracking the vector and position of four independent satellites, the hardware Vahlen saw reminded her that even across worlds, the basic principles of communication systems likely remained the same.

A pair of technicians looked up when the door opened, saw Winter's uniform that marked her as an Atlesian Specialist, and immediately stood at attention.

"Alright, Doctor. Let's see you demonstrate your 'portfolio of impressive scientific accomplishments,' shall we?" Winter looked at the technicians, "My friend here needs access to the CCTS live software systems. Do whatever it is that she requires to get her work done."

"Y-yes, ma'am." One of the men said.

Well this could present a bit of a problem. Vahlen's primary goal here was to strictly identify and quarantine any potential malware that the CCTS's IT department (they had an IT department, right?) may have missed. One hundred percent above-board and part of the initiative to build trust between Atlas, Vale, and XCOM. She also had a secondary objective, however, and while it wasn't antagonistic or underhanded and didn't involve sending operatives into restricted areas at 3 am, Ironwood might not take too well to it. Basically, both Vahlen and Shen (and therefore Bradford) had an interest in gaining a deeper understanding of the CCTS's digital architecture. Ozpin already explained to them that such information was proprietary knowledge of Atlas, and that not even he had access to it.

So Vahlen and Bradford agreed that the approved visit to Vale's CCTS tower for the anti-malware operation would be a perfect opportunity for the Chief Scientist to be a programming 'tourist' and document as much information and software as she could. With Winter as her chaperone, Vahlen figured she could accomplish this goal in plain sight. A military specialist born into what seemed to be Remnant's equivalent of nobility likely didn't spend much time poking around computer systems, and would simply assume that Vahlen was just doing what she came here to do. Qualified CCTS technicians, though? They might question Vahlen's antics.

Still, she needed to put on a good face and make the best of the situation. The hours of practicing a smile with Weiss paid off as Vahlen did her best to cheerfully greet the tech walking over to her.

"Good morning. I'm Dr. Vahlen of Vale's research division."

The tech grasped her outstretched hand and nodded, "Morning, ma'am. I'm not a doctor or anything, but I've been a part of Atlas's CCTS team for most of my adult life. Call me Grayson."

Vahlen nodded, "Thank you, Grayson. Given that my familiarity with CCTS architecture is less than ideal, I am sure that your assistance will be most useful."

"Well let's get down to business, then." Grayson said as he led Vahlen over to his station, "What exactly do you need access to our systems for? I don't doubt the authenticity of your request since it's backed up by Specialist Schnee, but I can probably help you more effectively if I know what you're doing."

And it seemed that the questioning had already begun. Unfortunate.

"It's related to the break-in that occurred at this facility several weeks ago." Vahlen explained, "While we've been told that nothing untoward was found in the aftermath, General Ironwood has agreed to Ozpin's request for a second opinion."

Grayson chuckled, "So you're here to second-guess our work, eh? Well, I can respect that a personal look is necessary for some people to enjoy peace of mind, but I don't expect you'll find anything. The General had us run every diagnostic in the book, and it turned up nothing. Gave us the opportunity to clean up some legacy code and improve our efficiency, though, so it ended up being a net positive for us."

"I agree that this project likely won't turn up anything." Vahlen conceded, "And believe me, nothing would make me happier than finding out that the network remains secure. But perhaps a non-Atlesian perspective might find something that you hadn't thought of."

The technician thought about that for a second, then shrugged, "Again, highly unlikely. But you've already taken the time to come out here and do this, so why not? Tell me what you need."

"One thing I need is to know what I'm allowed under Atlas's IT protocols. As I'm sure you're well aware, diagnostics on a system of this magnitude require more time than we are willing to spend waiting around for it to finish." Vahlen held up her scroll, "I have developed some software that will allow me to use my personal device as a mobile terminal so that I may track the progress of my programs as well as make modifications to their parameters while I attend to other business. The software offers a high degree of encryption to prevent any compromise to the data stream, and you are more than welcome to examine it if you wish. I can even configure it to run concurrently on your terminal so that you have the same administrator access if there is something that you feel requires your intervention."

Grayson took the scroll and flipped through the code Vahlen pulled up for him, "This… is very different from almost anything I've seen." He looked up at Vahlen with a curious glance, "You sure you're from around here? I've worked with Valean programmers in the past, and they don't write like this either."

Shit. Vahlen had worked with Ozpin to develop canned answers to a lot of questions, but not this one. She felt her heart beat faster as she scrambled to come up with an explanation, "Programming i-is a bit of a game for me. While there are methodologies commonly accepted as best practices, I s-sometimes try to find alternative logic structures to achieve the same goal. Just to… just to see if I can, I suppose."

Grayson gave her a long stare, as if trying to figure out whether she really was a top Valean scientist or just some wannabe script kiddie trying to get into trouble. As offensive as the notion was, the real reason for why her program logic differed from Atlesian standards would be far more difficult to explain. Vahlen didn't want to think about what kind of look Winter was probably giving her right now. Eventually, the technician finished his assessment of Vahlen's software and handed the scroll back to her.

"Looks fine to me. Protocol ordinarily does not allow for foreign software to run on the live servers, even with our consent. Given that this comes with authorization from the General, however, makes it an exception. Just means more work for me, since I have to monitor it while it runs." Grayson sighed.

And this was why Vahlen wasn't happy to see the technicians in the first place. Looked like she would have to postpone Objective Number Two for another day, given that she didn't want to gamble on Grayson failing to notice the data-gathering functions of her software. Good thing she pulled up the 'friendlier' code when she handed over her scroll. In truth, details about the CCTS architecture could wait. The safety of the tournament and the security of the tower came first, and Bradford made it very clear that he didn't want to risk putting further strain on XCOM's already-rocky relationship with Ironwood. The chances that something like this would occur were fairly high, they knew, and so the extra data was categorized as Nice To Have rather than Top Priority.

With no other choice, Vahlen got to work with Grayson setting up her diagnostic software while Winter looked on. The Chief Scientist would glance over her shoulder and see Weiss's sister staring right back at her with a raised eyebrow as if to ask, ' _Why are you looking at me? Your work is over there._ ' She never once looked bored or distracted, and Vahlen idly wondered just how far she could push her time here before Winter would feel inclined to tell her to hurry up. Fortunately for her chaperone, Vahlen also had better things to do today.

"Well, looks like we're good to go." Grayson declared, "Your stuff is monitoring the CCTS's stuff, and my stuff is monitoring your stuff."

"And Specialist Schnee is monitoring us, so there's plenty of monitoring going around." Vahlen said, attempting a joke. She sighed when nobody laughed, "Well, my scroll is receiving data from your system, so I think we're all done here. Thank you for your help, Grayson."

"Anytime, ma'am. You'll have to show me some more of your software sometime. It's always interesting to get a fresh perspective about the tools of the trade, you know?"

Vahlen smiled, "I'd be happy to."

And who knows? Perhaps Vahlen would be spending a lot of quality time with Atlesian researchers after the festival was over and XCOM came out of the shadows. That would certainly be something to look forward to.


	14. Haywire Protocol

A/N: Wanted to make a quick note about a minor detail the previous chapter that raised confusion among some readers. Neo didn't show up on the motion sensor data because she stayed out of their range, and _not_ because she was able to mask her presence with wacky Semblance hijinks. Winter only got caught when she moved in to investigate after RWBY and JNPR had cleared out, and Neo had no reason to follow her.

* * *

"Double the dosage."

Emerald walked into the dorm room occupied by her team to see Mercury performing mechanical surgery on one leg while Lady Cinder pored over information on her scroll. Neo was on her own scroll, though a beat-em-up side scroller could hardly be considered a productive use of her time. Both Mercury and Cinder looked up at Emerald's arrival while the vertically-challenged psychopath ignored her.

Emerald repeated her opening statement, "Whatever concentration of the venom you're putting into the injection, double it."

"I take it your little jaunt this morning was productive?" Cinder asked, a smile crossing her lips.

Emerald tried to hide the satisfaction she gained from Cinder's approval and nodded. "Yes ma'am. I encountered the Belladonna girl and listened in on a conversation she had with someone who is apparently some sort of doctor."

Mercury put his screwdriver down and raised an eyebrow, "Unless his name is Oobleck, I'm not sure how you can be 'some sort' of doctor."

As had become customary with their interactions, Emerald followed up on Mercury's quip with a glare, " _She_ sounded very knowledgeable in the medical advice she gave to the kitten. What's more, the conversation sounded like our friend is suffering from some sort of PTSD."

"That would explain the behavior we saw in the first match. It appears that we were correct in our assessment of her actions," Cinder mused, "And you believe this necessitates a change in our plans why? Our benefactor was very clear in the instructions that came with the gift we received yesterday."

"Because this Doctor Vahlen gave her some relaxant medication to calm her nerves." Emerald answered, "It might dampen the effect we need to the point where our plan doesn't work."

Cinder eyed her scroll, and Emerald guessed she was considering contacting their mysterious benefactor for advice. Emerald wondered if she would ever get to meet this person, given how much Cinder seemed to rely on their guidance and only spoke of them with respect in her voice. In the end she decided against it and opted to make a decision on her own.

"Our benefactor was very clear about the potency of our gift. Too much, and our dear little kitten might kill herself. And while that would be one less huntress to deal with, it does not fit with the narrative we are trying to craft."

Emerald nodded, "Of course, ma'am."

"That being said," Cinder added, "Failing at this stage in the game is likewise… undesirable. We will increase the dosage by half rather than double it. I think that will be a sufficient compromise to account for this new information. Was there anything else of note that you heard during their conversation?"

Emerald nodded, though she looked unsure of herself. "… Yes, though I'm not entirely sure how to explain it."

"Give it your best shot. I'm sure we'll understand at least half of it." Mercury smirked.

Emerald ignored her partner's jab. "Well, they talked as if Belladonna has developed this PTSD months ago, but she seemed perfectly fine when Mercury and I talked with her team before they vanished for a few weeks on that black ops project we've heard about. She mentioned two things I didn't recognize, too: a place called Newfoundland, and a creature called a… Chryssalid?"

"Not a Grimm I've ever heard of." Mercury said, turning back to his leg, "Sure you just didn't have some wax in your ears?"

Cinder held up a hand to silence Mercury. "Come now, Emerald has learned some valuable information for us, and I'm certain our benefactor will be _very_ interested when I pass it along. I trust her report to be accurate, as should you."

Mercury shrugged and continued to work on his prosthetic without a word. Cinder got up from her bed and gave her clothes a quick dust-off before she headed for the door. "It seems I have a scroll call to make. Make sure your… enhancements are ready in time for your fight, Mercury. And remember, she only needs to bleed once. The show will begin shortly thereafter."

* * *

Silence fell across the crowd as they watched the stadium begin its impressive transformation for the first finals match of the tournament. No fancy environments rose from the depths of Amity Colosseum this time: the central platform detached itself from the pattern of interlocking metal and elevated the two combatants while the ceiling awnings extended outward to plunge the entire structure into pseudo-darkness. The hard light shields protecting the audience from stray gunfire hummed to life, and a ring of spotlights turned on one-by-one and illuminated the stage and its two combatants.

Blake stood impassively on one end of the platform, her mind hard at work assessing the situation. One Mercury Black stood across from her for the fight, his cocky smirk firmly in place on his smug face. All of the combatants for the Singles Round had previously assembled in the center of the stadium for the viewing pleasure of the audience before the tournament's lottery-style selection system chose Blake and Mercury for the opening fight. Blake noticed that Beacon had three combatants representing Vale in the finals, which struck her as odd. She didn't really pay much attention to the organization of the brackets for the tournament, but she had just assumed that it was set up in a way that resulted in two representatives from each academy would face off for the championship. Nobody else seemed to be raising a fuss about it, though, so she decided to simply let it go.

Presently, however, Blake had bigger issues to worry about. She did go with Vahlen to the Temple Ship for the adrenal medication, and while Blake felt bad about cutting into the doctor's time for breakfast with her team, she did feel more calm than she expected. Not lethargic, dizzy, or tipsy, but all those worries that had been buzzing around her head and heart seemed a lot less important in the grand scheme of things. Instead, she now had the mental capacity to focus on trying to develop a battle plan in the next fifteen seconds before the fighting started. Blake recalled watching Emerald and Mercury fight against Sun and Neptune, and remembered paying attention to the Mercury vs. Sun skirmish in particular. Mercury's fluid fighting style allowed him to evade, redirect, and counter just about everything Sun tried to throw at him. A brute-force combat style like Yang's would probably fare poorly against him, Blake figured.

Perhaps Blake's own strength of agility and misdirection would work better. She could dodge all of her opponent's blows and frustrate him to the point where he finally makes a mistake that she could exploit. Even so, he earned the nickname of 'The Unirkable Merc' for a reason. If goading him into getting sloppy didn't work, Blake would have to come up with a Plan B.

"You just gonna stand there and stare at me all day?" Mercury called, "Or are you gonna say something?"

Ah yes. Head games. Blake knew that taking the bait would be a bad idea, and yet…

"Like what?"

Mercury shrugged, "Oh I dunno. How about 'Good luck?' Or 'May the best fighter win?' "

"Break a leg?" Blake suggested. For the fleetest of moments, Blake noticed the maddening smirk falter and Mercury's eyes narrowed. Interesting. Did she just imagine his glance flicking down to his feet? Either way, it was probably safe to say that Round One went to Blake Belladonna.

Rather than Port's usual interjection, a sharp blast over the stadium's speakers marked the start of the match.

Mercury dropped into his combat stance and cocked an eyebrow at Blake. She knew better than to launch herself at him, so she readied Gambol Shroud and mirrored his look. Blake felt the pulse of her heart as she and Mercury slowly strafed around each other in careful sync. The crowd, usually wild with energy and cheer, held its breath in anticipation of who would make the first strike. And while Mercury seemed perfectly content to wait for Blake to do the honors, she knew that the audience's patience would wear out a lot sooner. Ruby's previous suspicion of Mercury's teammate crossed Blake's mind, and she wondered if he had some nefarious plot up his sleeve. Or maybe he just didn't care about what the crowds wanted to see. Well, since Blake didn't want to get in close just yet…

Gambol shroud folded back on itself, and Blake fired off a volley from her pistol. Mercury spun out of the way with minimal effort, but Blake's opening succeeded in breaking the ice. She skirted around the edge of the elevated arena, pistol still hot while Mercury reacted to her offensive. He landed on his hands from his initial dodge and swung his legs around to evade the next wave of bullets from Gambol Shroud. Blake noticed that the few rounds that directly struck her opponent's feet appeared to have no effect. It didn't really surprise her, given that his boots were his weapons, and she silently nixed the idea of crippling her opponent by focus-firing on his legs. As Mercury let his momentum carry his legs through another full swing, his took aim at Blake and unleashed with his own ranged weaponry. Blake dodged the volley with a quick series of side steps as her opponent continued to discharge shot after shot from his heel.

" _An interesting opening from our contestants!_ " Port commentated, " _It seems both Belladonna and Black are testing the waters before committing themselves to melee combat!_ "

The two fighters continued to dash, dance, and prance around each other. Blake's agility meshed well with her foe's mercurial combat style to produce a sort of dance as each tried to suss out the other's weakness. No matter what angle Blake tried to shoot from, Mercury's whirlwind of leather boots easily deflected the attack. Similarly, the slow speed of Mercury's bullets proved almost trivial for Blake to dodge as she ran rings around him from a while the occasional shot from each side connected with the other, their Aura pools remained largely untouched through the first thirty seconds of the match. Again, Mercury's willingness to stall for time came across to Blake clear as day. For whatever reason, he seemed to think he had an advantage over her in hand-to-hand (hand-to-foot?) combat, and was trying to bait her into recklessly charging into melee after a frustrating stalemate at range.

Well, nothing would change if they continued at this pace. While Blake knew she'd be playing into Mercury's plan, she decided to go for a melee poke and see what happened. With flashing blades, Blake pivoted hard mid-dash and ran straight at Mercury. She juked sideways at the last second and left a shadow clone behind for her opponent to thrust his leg into. Blake swiped low with her blade, and Mercury flipped over the attack with a handspring before kicking off with an explosive _bang_ to put himself right back into melee. Blake knew from watching his previous matches that Mercury was skilled with his hands on both offense and defense despite clearly favoring his feet. He put that talent to good use in their fight with quick motions to redirect Blake's strikes by applying pressure to her forearms or bumping her wrist out of position with a well-timed knife hand. And when he couldn't block an attack with his arms, Mercury had a knack for raising his boot at just the right moment for a deflecting kick.

Blake managed to keep up her own defense as well. She made frequent use of her basic Semblance to keep Mercury off-balance and negate the inevitable counterattack that came after almost every block and kick. She had Weiss's elemental gift locked and ready inside her weapon, but decided to avoid tipping her hand this early (or at all, if she could help it). Blake noted with some annoyance that the shadow still had a slightly amorphous appearance, though it had vastly improved over the weeks and months since she received her new limbs. Still, they were realistic enough to get the job done, and Blake doubted that Mercury had any intention of offering up critique on her shadows in the middle of a tournament fight.

The power that Mercury managed to pack into each kick took Blake by surprise. From the 'floaty' style of combat she'd watched Mercury use in his previous matches, Blake assumed that he'd traded power for speed with his attacks. Seeing first-hand the magnitude of force Mercury packed into his strikes meant that Blake needed to quickly readjust her plan of action. It made her dodging game all the more important, as a single solid blow would be enough to tip the scales heavily in Mercury's favor. Blake caught her opponent's latest sweeping kick between her crossed sword and sheath, and the two combatants locked eyes for a split second. While Mercury still wore his trademark smirk and seemed to be enjoying himself, Blake noticed something else beneath his air of superiority: concentration.

Oh good, so he _was_ taking this fight seriously.

" _What an amazing way to kick off the final round of the tournament!_ " Oobleck exclaimed, " _Let's hope the other matches live up to the blood-pumping action of this one!_ "

As their fight resumed, something seemed different about Mercury's fighting style. He still shifted between hard kicks and dance-like defenses with has fluid momentum, and he certainly showed no signs of growing tired. Blake couldn't pin it down exactly, but something seemed different about his kicks.

"Gotta give you credit," Mercury said as Blake evaded another volley of point-blank heel rounds, "Thought this would be over sooner."

"Thought you'd get beat down ten seconds in?" Blake teased.

"You wish."

The banter seemed friendly enough, and Blake wondered once more whether Ruby's concerns about Mercury and Emerald were actually true. If he had some sort of dastardly plan, Mercury had no problem taking his sweet time with it. Even so, something still nagged Blake about the subtle shift in Mercury's attacks. The fact that she couldn't pin it down frustrated her, and Blake worried if it was something that might cost her the match. She evaded another jab from Mercury, then yelped as he followed up with an incredibly fast back kick. His foot moved faster than her arms, and a loud _clang_ resounded as his heel connected with her forearm instead of her sheath. The force of his attack caused Blake to skid back several feet, but she could clearly see the look of mild confusion on Mercury's face. Her ears perked up and zeroed in on the sound of his mutterings over the din of the stadium.

"Interesting…"

Interesting how? It crossed Blake's mind that he might suspect mechanical enhancements in her arm in the same way that Bolin did during RWBY's first match. While this was the first heavy hit he scored on her arm, Mercury had been pushing and grabbing her forearms throughout their melee. What if this was just the hit that confirmed his suspicions? Well, he wasn't crying foul, so maybe he just didn't care. Blake tried to regain control of her rising pulse as Mercury resumed their fight.

And again, something seemed off. Was Vahlen's drug messing with her ability to focus? That was certainly a worrying possibility that Blake didn't want to entertain.

" _And it looks like Black is slowly gaining the upper hand now. He's putting Belladonna on the defensive!_ "

Blake spent more time now dodging and shadow cloning than counterattacking now, which wasn't really helping her calm the heart pounding in her chest. She needed to think of some way to regain control of the fight and approach it on her own terms. While she hoped to avoid using her number one ace in the hole, it was time to hide in plain sight.

" _Belladonna once again uses her disappearing act!_ " Oobleck pitched in, " _Let's see if Black fares better against this trick than Blake's other opponents._ "

"Heeeeeere kitty kitty." Mercury intoned. He stood perfectly still from the shoulders down, but his head slowly panned across the stage as he tried to pick up on something that would give away Blake's position. "Come out, come out wherever you are…"

The cheering of the audience died down as they waited to see what happened next. Mercury remained perfectly calm, still scanning for signs of his foe. Seconds passed with no sign of an attack, and whispering started to break out among the crowd.

Port's voice echoed throughout the stadium, " _What is Belladonna's plan here? The show must go on, and- oh my!_ "

Under the cover of the professor's booming voice, Blake dashed at Mercury and swept in low at his legs. By the time her Shadow Armor broke its cloak, Mercury only had enough time to raise one leg and try to counter. Blake dipped her head out of the way of Mercury's boot before following through with her attack and knocking her opponent to his back with Gambol Shroud. She felt a sting on her neck and touched it with one hand. As she pulled the glove away, she saw a patch of blood staining the cloth.

"What…?"

There must have been some sort of hidden blade in the heel he threw at her. Suddenly she felt a little less guilty about concealing the nature of her limbs. If Mercury could have a hidden boot blade that could have done some serious damage to her arteries, then what was so bad about keeping her robo arms a secret? It's not her fault that she had a monster literally _stab her through the abdomen_ , and it certainly wasn't her fault that Vahlen's surgery was the only way to save her. What _was_ a choice, however, was Mercury's decision to put a damn dagger in his foot and try to slice her with it. Even if her Aura healed up the wound after the fact, that didn't change the cowardice of his action.

Blake's vision started to turn red as she watched Mercury sit on the ground looking dazed. Oh, bullshit, she didn't knock him on his ass that hard. She didn't know what his plan was, but taking a dive like a soccer player was pretty fucking low, even for a smug asshole like Mercury. Oh boo hoo, he stubbed his widdle toe. Did the jackass forget that he stabbed her in the neck? Blake wasn't complaining and making a show of it. No, she was going to do what any sensible tournament combatant would do, and beat the shit out of this chucklefuck and putting him in his place.

 _Blake? Are you okay? You look a little… uh… angry._

Congrats on noticing, Ruby. And fuck you too for not sending a psychic warning earlier about the stupid boot blade. Surely you would have sensed Mercury thinking about it, so why not say anything? Well, Blake could have an enjoyable chat with her Captain later. For now, she needed to dispense some justice on the scum laying in front of her.

She swung Gambol Shroud once at the figure trying to stand up before her, and enjoyed the sight of him falling down on his ass again. Good, that's where he belonged. Blake dimly heard Port saying something in the background as her sword arced through the air twice more at Mercury. The huntsman rolled away to his feet to buy himself some breathing room, but Blake was having none of it. She dashed in, delivered a knee to his gut, and sent her foe skyward. Blake followed her prey with a kick-off and sent him crashing back into the ground with another spin of her blades. Good thing this was a tournament match where she was not only allowed to beat the hell out of this punk, but that doing so was the entire point of the event.

 _Blake. Blake, stop. This isn't you._

Blake crashed down onto Mercury again before he stopped rolling from his own impact with the ground. Ruby could shove it. The small part of Blake's mind that tried to agree with Ruby could go get fucked, too. This guy was a dirty cheater, with his Swiss Army Boot and smug grin. Well, actions have consequences, Mercury, and it's time for you to face the music. Another slice, another kick, and Blake's thirst for revenge only grew stronger. She glanced up at the scoreboard and saw Mercury's Aura level plummet faster than a Nevermore in a nosedive. Good. He needed this, and so did she.

The fear on Mercury's face looked a lot less manufactured the next time they locked eyes. He must have realized by now his mistake, and was terrified of what he knew he deserved. Too bad Blake didn't have room for mercy in her heart right now.

 _Blake STOP._

No. Shut up, Ruby. Get out of my goddamn head. With the next swing of Gambol Shroud, Mercury's Aura dipped into the red. Blake knew that the match was over by this point. She knew that she was supposed to stop. But what kind of message would that send to Mercury? No, one more good hit should do the trick. Something to make sure he thought long and hard the next time he decided to pull a bullshit stunt on some poor soul in the future. She stood over her prey, eyes burning with rage, and raised her sword. Like the guillotine of France's revolution, this would get her point across to Mercury loud and clear.

And that's when Blake Belladonna blacked out.

* * *

"Unaccept… you thinking… Grimm…!"

Blake's eyes swam as she struggled to cling to consciousness. A lot of misshapen figures swirled around in her blurry vision, and Blake could only assume that they were people. Or maybe they were statues. Animated, talking statues.

"Not… couldn't predic… -characteristic."

"… matter! … still have… because of…"

"… know Blake… could… if only…"

What was with this sense of Deja Vu? The fact that these people (some angry and some not) seemed to be talking about her bothered Blake less than the fact that the back of her mind tickled with the sensation that she'd been here before.

"…-gardless… disqual… we do?"

" _DISQUALIFIED?!_ "

Well, at least she could always count on Ruby's voice to come in loud and clear. What did she mean by 'disqualified,' though? Disqualified from what?

"… sense… bigger problems… tournament…"

Oh right, there was a tournament going on. Did Ruby get disqualified from it? She'd probably need some comforting later, in that case. After Blake had a chance to regain her bearings, though.

"… anything… not telling…? … need… Ozpin…"

"Hey… waking up…"

When the talking stopped and the statues got closer, Blake guessed that they were staring at her. Should she say something? She felt like she should say something.

"Wh'sss… whusappen…ing?" Speaking, she realized, was just as difficult as keeping her eyes open, "Wh… where…?"

She felt a sharp pain her her neck and let out a sluggish yelp. On the bright side, whatever she got jabbed with seemed to bring the world into focus. With her vision back in working order, Blake took stock of the situation. Quite a few people crowded the room around her: Ruby and Yang from her team; Nora and Ren from JNPR; Ozpin and Glynda; Vahlen; and General Ironwood. Blake assumed that Pyrrha (and, by extension, Jaune) was missing because she was potentially on-deck for the next tournament fight, while Nora and Ren hung back in the corner. They looked like they wanted to come for moral support, but didn't really know what to do with so many other people crowded around as well. The absence of Weiss and Bradford seemed odd. Maybe Weiss was with her sister, since Winter wasn't here either. Bradford… was he even on Remnant to begin with?

With her head starting to hurt from overthinking the situation, Blake looked down to see that she was propped up in a bed. That could only mean that everyone had assembled in the small medical unit stationed on the Colosseum. The sight of her bare, metallic arms resting on top of the sheets caused Blake to suck in a sharp breath as she instinctively scrambled to cover her secret.

"Save it, miss Belladonna." Ironwood said with a tired sigh, "We've been discussing that little issue while you were passed out."

Letting her arms fall back into lap, Blake cast a sheepish glance at her guests. "I'm… I'm awake now. Is everything alright?"

"I don't know." Ironwood said, the slightest tinge of venom in his voice, "Why don't you tell us?"

Blake blinked in confusion. What was that supposed to mean? Unless… oh no. No, please no. Anything but that.

"What did I do?" She whispered.

"You looked like you were about to kill mister Black." Ozpin sighed, "The match was clearly over, yet you raised your weapon to deliver what looked to be a decapitating blow before you passed out."

Blake darted her eyes around to give the impression of general nervousness, but locked eyes with Ruby for a split-second so that her leader (and not Ironwood) would catch the meaning of her next half-question. "Was it…?"

 _No, it wasn't me._

Blake looked over at her partner. Yang's usually cheerful attitude instead held a somber, fatigued note. "You had murder written all over your face. Sure, the crowds enjoy watching people beat the crap out of each other, but there was no sportsmanship or competition in your eyes, just… rage."

"It wasn't as catastrophic as it could have been, if that's what you're wondering." Ozpin said, "But it still ruffled some feathers."

Ironwood looked ready to open his mouth, but Glynda cut him off, her voice hard-yet-concerned. "Blake. I've known you long enough to recognize that this wasn't normal behavior. What happened out there?"

Blake felt the bile slowly rising in her throat and swallowed hard as she tried to piece her memory back together. Where did it all start? The fight was going normally (if slowly) for quite a while, then Blake did her vanishing trick, and… oh, that's right.

"Mercury's heel nicked me when he dodged my surprise attack." Blake answered, "I don't know why, but something about that seemed to… uh… set me off."

"That's it?" Ironwood asked, "That's really it? You went crazy because he scratched you? You put the festival and its attendees in jeopardy of a Grimm attack over a _papercut_?"

Blake shifted uncomfortably. When the General phrased it like that, the whole affair did sound pretty stupid. While she didn't enjoy being reprimanded, she did appreciate the gravity of the situation and why Ironwood was so furious: given that he held the title of Chief of Security for the festival, Blake's outburst just put a lot of extra strain squarely on his shoulders.

"I… I can't explain it, sir. I got up after he cut me, and… just started seeing red." She mumbled.

"Hey." Blake felt a hand on her shoulder, and looked up to see Yang staring back while forcing a smile onto her face, "It's going to be fine."

Ironwood let out a groan. "I wish I could share your optimism, Xiao Long, but I sincerely doubt that things will be fine for quite some time. I have some business -a lot of business, actually- to attend to in the fallout of this mess, so I must be going. I could also use your assistance, professor Goodwitch, if you would be so kind."

"Of course, General."

Glynda followed Ironwood out of the room, and silence fell over the remaining occupants while Blake continued to process the situation. She looked over at Vahlen, who had remained silent thus far, and felt a twinge of guilt. If only Blake had gone to see her sooner, the Doctor could have come up with a solution that was more effective than drugs and meditation. The somber faces looking back at her from around the room only compounded the regret. She noticed the expressions of concern on Nora, Ren, and Yang, the sympathetic half-smile from Ozpin… but Ruby's sadness stood out most of all.

"I'm sorry," Blake said, barely above a whisper, "You put your faith in me, and I let you down. I… I don't know what happened."

Vahlen gave Blake a rare smile. While it looked small and uncertain, Blake sensed that it was also genuine. "I believe you, Blake, and I may have a way to make the most of this terrible situation and find some answers to this unfortunate event."

Blake's ears shot up. "Really?"

"You mentioned that you were nicked before you experienced an altered state of mind, correct?"

"Before I went crazy, you mean?" Blake asked with a derisive laugh, "Yeah. I remember getting really angry about it. Seems pretty dumb in hindsight."

"Perhaps not. Your Aura allows you to recover rapidly from minor cuts and scrapes, correct? If I'm not mistaken, it only takes mere seconds for any sign of the wound to be removed completely."

Blake noticed Ozpin's eyes widen for a fraction of a second. Yang, however, didn't even bother to hide her concern. "What are you getting at, Doc?"

Vahlen grabbed a small pack sitting next to her, dug around for a minute, and produced a syringe. "If someone wished to inject you with a hallucinogenic or a similar toxicological agent, there'd be no way to detect it with a visual examination, would there?"

"… Do you always carry a syringe around with you?" Ruby asked, eyeing Vahlen's equipment.

At this point, Vahlen could be carrying around a Large Hadron Supercollider (whatever that was) in her bag, and Blake wouldn't care. The implications of her question started to turn the cogs in Blake's head. "So you think I was sabotaged?"

"Wait," Nora interrupted, "Isn't Aura supposed to stop stuff like that? Like, actually getting injured and stuff?"

Ren shook his head. "Aura can mitigate major blows and help us shrug off the pain from a fall so that we can stand back up and carry on fighting, but something like a scratch could very easily slip through. Blake would have had to actively focus her Aura to defend against it, which wasn't possible given that her efforts were focused on her surprise sweep attack."

"Oh." Nora said, "I guess I've never noticed."

"We can hypothesize all day if we want and get no closer to the truth." Vahlen pointed out, "But if I took a blood sample and examined it in my lab…"

"Do it."

Vahlen glanced over her shoulder at the other people in the room, "Once we're done here, I will. Given that the most common veins used for drawing blood aren't exactly available in this case, the next best option is a little more… personal."

"I see no problem with personal." Yang said, earning herself an elbow to the ribs from her sister.

"If I may interrupt, I have a question."

All eyes turned to Ren in the back of the room, and the young huntsman continued, "What's going to happen with the rest of the tournament? Ironwood wasn't wrong when he said that people are likely rattled after the match between Blake and Mercury, and that's assuming there isn't any foul play at work. If Vahlen finds something during her blood workup, then perhaps Ruby wasn't wrong to suspect Emerald's team."

The focus of the room's occupants shifted over to Ozpin, who looked as if he was expecting this question sooner or later. "The obvious answer would be to halt the tournament until we can determine whether or not something nefarious is truly going on. However, it may not be that simple. We stop the tournament, and people will wonder why. When people wonder why, they begin to develop theories of their own. When it comes to fear and the Grimm, baseless theories are never good."

"So… what? We just keep moving things along like nothing happened?" Yang asked, "That seems like it would be worse."

"I will have to discuss this with General Ironwood, but I'd like to point out that moving things along does not necessarily mean we act like nothing happened. Ironwood has become keenly aware that there is a very real security problem now, and he and I will take steps to root the problem out over the next several hours and days. Step one is to question Mercury about the events that transpired and see if we can determine any foul play."

"Might want to tap XCOM's Psi Corps for that conversation." Ruby suggested, "Even if we can't use their findings as evidence because nobody knows about their ability to read thoughts, it provides us with confirmation that we need to watch Emerald's team and every move they make."

"I can contact Bradford and ask him to dispatch Annette or another psi op. With your permission, of course." Vahlen said, glancing at Ozpin.

"That would be a very wise move, I think." Ozpin agreed, "Though perhaps not Annette, as our suspicious friends have likely seen her with RWBY and JNPR already. An unknown would be a better idea."

Vahlen made a few taps on her tablet (Blake noticed that she preferred the larger device over her new scroll) and nodded. "Done. I suspect Bradford will also suggest sending a few more conventional operatives to provide additional security and reconnaissance. Now, I would like to spend some time alone with Blake if we are all finished here. Given the potentially dire nature of what is unfolding here, I don't doubt that you all have places to be as well."

Ruby nodded. "Yeah. Hopefully this turns out to be nothing, but knowing our luck…" She bumped her sister, "C'mon. Let's go find Weiss and see if we can help coordinate with Bradford's recon team."

* * *

Bradford ran a hand through his hair and exhaled a stressed sigh. A day (or three hours, depending on one's perspective) had passed since Blake's incident in the tournament, and the coordinated efforts to resolve matters didn't go as smoothly as anyone had hoped. Bradford remembered getting Ruby's initial alert that something had happened to Blake in her fight, and his feeling of powerlessness when he found himself unable to go. The day after his meeting with the Council, he received a follow-up message from them requesting his presence at some sort of delegation as an ambassador for XCOM. The Council itself wouldn't be present, but representatives from almost every nation on Earth would be there. The Central Officer assumed that this was part of the Council's plan to try a 'different' approach to their negotiations with XCOM, and so Bradford felt like he'd be spitting in the face of a well-intentioned olive branch if he chose not to go.

To its credit, the delegation did feel productive. Bradford didn't have to speak much at all, though he did shake a lot of hands. It seemed like many countries were eager to express their gratitude for his hard work, and so Bradford found himself to be quite popular among the majority of the delegation's guests. He hung back and kept quiet when the discussions got underway. The main focus of the talks revolved around efforts to rebuild. It appeared that confirmation of life elsewhere in the galaxy, and its apparent awareness of Earth, had motivated the people of Earth to put aside their differences and try to work towards a unified front. Discussions ranged from plans for infrastructure to preservation of culture, and Bradford actually felt happy the Council suggest he sit in on the talks. He was asked for his thoughts every now and then when the conversation steered towards security or technology, but for the most part he quietly listened and tried to gauge which way the winds were blowing.

Which, of course, left him unable to make the trip to Remnant when he received words of trouble brewing. By the time he'd returned to the Temple Ship and received a complete debriefing from Van Doorn, the issue had already been (sort of) resolved. Bradford's ranking officers did a solid job of coordinating their efforts with Ozpin to help in any way they could. The Vytal Tournament had already resumed and Ironwood's security measures were set in motion, though hiccups arose almost immediately. Despite their best efforts, Atlas security failed to locate and detain Mercury and Emerald for questioning. In the time it took for Ironwood to send out an all-points bulletin after meeting with Blake and Ozpin, it seemed like the Mistrali team had quietly smooth-talked their way off of the Colosseum and vanished into Vale. Ironwood agreed to allow a dispatch of Valean Recon operatives to assist with the search, but nothing had turned up yet.

The atmosphere at the festival seemed a little more subdued as well. Sure, spirits were high and the cheering was loud for the next two matches (Pyrrha in particular put on a good show against some kid from Atlas), but there was a lot of downtime in between fights. And from the reports Bradford received from RWBY, JNPR, and his scouts, rumors and concerns were starting to spread. He didn't agree with the decision to continue with the festival in light of these problems. Shut it down and send everyone home, consequences be damned. The damage would be a lot less than if something happens with thousands of people still gathered in one place. Political complaints could be smoothed over with time. The memory of a bloody massacre would be inked into the history books forever. Still, the call wasn't his to make, and so the best Bradford could do was coordinate with his operatives, confer with Ozpin, and hope for the best.

Oh, and prepare for the _other_ conference coming up.

In spite of their efforts to make amends, such as the invite to the conference, it seemed the Council still felt the need to pull a pointless power move and push up the date of their meeting by a day. Bradford knew that the more likely scenario was that they managed to get all their arrangements in order faster than expected and didn't want to wait an extra day, but he didn't like that the meeting with the Councilman would be happening while the issues on Remnant were still unresolved. Bradford knew he would have to tell him about Remnant, and he knew that the Councilman would want to see it for himself. Telling him 'no' would only raise suspicion and make things worse when both parties were trying to make them better.

Bradford gave himself a final once-over in his private washroom before stepping out to oversee final preparations. MacAuley stood outside the door waiting for him.

"Everything ready, Mac?"

The Irishman nodded. "Eightball left twenty minutes ago to escort the Councilman's transport. They should be here in less than ten minutes."

"Good. Let's get this over with."

"Are things that bad with the Council?" MacAuley asked with a raised eyebrow.

"No," Bradford sighed as the two of them walked down the hallway, "I made some… mistakes in my early negotiations with them after the war, and things just sort of devolved from there. Even if we're moving in the right direction now, the thought of the Council still leaves a bad taste in my mouth."

"Well, the Councilman is about to be fuckin' impressed, because Engineering has been working around the clock to get this ship cleaned up for him since we got word two days go about his arrival."

Bradford smiled. "Thanks, MacAuley. I know that you took it upon yourself to spearhead this operation, and I really appreciate it. We need to put our best foot forward with the Council, and I believe your efforts will go a long way to accomplish that."

"Yeah, yeah," MacAuley waved him off, "You can thank me afterwards in the lounge for a round of beer. Fastest way to an Irishman's heart and all that."

Bradford and MacAuley passed by a lot of personnel as they made their way towards the hangar, and everyone was busy with last-minute work before the Council delegation arrived. A few operatives and MECs also were pitching in to help with the manual labor, though Bradford knew most of the Strike Teams were waiting for him as part of the welcoming committee. The two of them made it to the cavernous hangar just as Annette reported visual contact with the transport and its escort. Flanked by his cadre of field operatives in dress uniform and his Chief Scientist and Engineer, Bradford stood at attention with his welcoming committee as they watched the Councilman's transport fly in flanked by Eightball's Firestorm and land on the flight deck. The boarding ramp lowered with a hiss, and Bradford observed five people step out.

Three of the guests were obviously the security detail. Dressed in fatigues with weapons casually held in their hands, it looked like the Councilman decided to take up Van Doorn on his offer to bring some muscle to the meeting. The woman in front, probably the head of the detail by Bradford's guess, looked almost bored with her shotgun in hand and a baseball cap on her head proudly displaying Ireland's colors.

The fourth was a bald, bespectacled young man who immediately started to take in his surroundings and jot down notes on a datapad in his hand. The Councilman's science aide, no doubt about it. Bradford wondered if he was selected because his age would make him easily impressionable and eager to please his superiors on what was undoubtedly the most important project of his life. At the same time, however, his lack of age meant a lack of old habits or long-standing ties with the Council. Either way, he reminded Bradford of Dr. Vahlen in the air of eagerness surrounding him. Hopefully the two would get along.

And finally, Bradford set his eyes on the fifth member of the delegation. An older, slightly heavy-set man whose lack of hair matched the scientist made his way down the ramp. He looked calm and collected as he carried himself with confidence and purpose. A sidearm hung at his hip, and Bradford wondered if it was purely for show or if the man possessed some degree of skill with it. The security detail approached Bradford, then moved aside to allow the two remaining members of the party to step forward. The older man stopped in front of Bradford and stood quietly for a brief moment before finally offering a greeting and an outstretched hand.

"Central Officer Bradford, it is... good to finally meet you face-to-face. I am Councilman Bailey."

* * *

A/N: You're goddamn right I'm bringing Jane motherfucking Kelly into this story. That woman is probably Resistance!XCOM's 3rd greatest asset behind Bradford's lost sweatervest and Peter Van Doorn.


	15. Quid Pro Quo

A/N: LONG WAR 2 ANNOUNCED. SET HYPE(RWAVE) THRUSTERS TO MAXIMUM.

* * *

Bradford looked at the outstretched hand before him and realized that this was finally it. Time to make things right between XCOM and the Council that founded it. He took Councilman Bailey's hand in a firm grip and looked him dead in the eye before answering, "Welcome aboard, sir. It's a pleasure to have you."

"It's a pleasure to be here." Bailey agreed, "Now that we've taken the first steps towards... reconciliation, the rest will fall into place."

The Councilman took the opportunity to introduce the rest of his guests. He gestured to the younger man on his left, who had the wherewithal to put his scientific observations on hold and direct his focus at the unfolding conversation. "Allow me to introduce Doctor Richard Tygan. He is an… extraordinary biochemist that has led the Council's research into a better... understanding of the biology of our unwelcome guests. I can't think of a more qualified individual to accompany me on this endeavor."

Tygan bowed his head in acknowledgment of the praise. "Believe me when I say it is an honor to be here. The advances made by XCOM's research division are nothing short of awe-inspiring. The opportunity to meet Doctors Vahlen and Shen is something I simply could not pass up." He offered a tentative smile as he glanced between Bradford's Chief Researchers, "I look forward to working productively with you during my stay aboard your ship."

"I don't think the Councilman appreciates your sentiment that the Temple Ship belongs to XCOM," Shen said with a smile, "But thank you for the warm words. You are far too kind."

An uneasy silence fell over the group after Shen bluntly kicked the proverbial Sectopod in the room. Rather than try to frantically smooth things over, Bradford waited to see what the Councilman would say on the matter. Perhaps it would provide some insight into how the rest of the delegation's visit would play out. Bailey cleared his throat, "I have no intention of starting this… critical meeting off on a foul note. Given that XCOM has played caretaker to the Temple Ship for the last month and a half, I think it's… fair to say that it is presently their ship. But there is some truth to your Chief Scientist's words, Bradford. I think you and I both understand that the primary purpose of this meeting is to establish where XCOM stands as it works with the Council of Nations towards the safety and… betterment of mankind."

"A-fucking-men." MacAuley muttered.

"Language." Bailey's security officer chided.

"It's quite alright, Lieutenant." The Councilman said with a small chuckle, "Their house, their rules. Besides, I think we can all agree with the… sentiment expressed by the Central Officer's adjutant."

Bradford seized the opportunity to play off of Bailey's levity. "MacAuley's always been a bit of a loudmouth, though I still trust him as much as anyone else at XCOM to do what's right. That being said, I'd give you a medal on the spot on behalf of all of us if you managed to knock him down a few pegs, miss…?"

"Kelly, sir. Jane Kelly. I run a security detail for the Councilman." She shouldered her weapon and offered her hand in greeting.

"Glad you could join us, Lieutenant Kelly." Bradford said, accepting the handshake, "My staff will be happy to assist and comply with any requirements you have for the safety of the Councilman."

Kelly raised an eyebrow, "That's quite the blank check you've given me, sir."

"I trust you won't abuse it." The Central Officer answered. He turned his attention back to Bailey, "I'm sure you are a busy man, Councilman. Is there an itinerary you've put together for your visit, or should I start with a general tour of the facilities?"

"A tour is fine. While the council does indeed have other issues to deal with, the… importance of the Temple Ship takes priority over all other engagements I may have. You have my full attention for as long as necessary, Bradford."

The Central Officer nodded, "Fair enough. Well, you've already seen the main hangar. It connects to a production facility that very likely holds the ship's ability to manufacture new UFO's to replace the ones we splashed. While we've managed to successfully breach the fab houses and begun our scientific examination of the alien technology, we're not having much luck understanding how they actually used the equipment to produce fully-functioning ships. Work is slow because we're taking precautions to avoid any unwanted incidents, and because most of our research staff is focused elsewhere."

"Given that the… terrible power this ship possesses is one of the main concerns of the Council, I have no issue with your personnel spending their… energies on other avenues of research and development. Perhaps it will come in handy at some point in the future, but I'm certain you've made… far more useful discoveries in the meantime."

That took the Central Officer by surprise. Perhaps it was the post-war fatigue clouding his judgment during their first couple of less-than-friendly meetings, but Bradford got the sense that they wanted access to the ship to access its weaponry. The fact that Bailey seemed more concerned with the non-military applications of the Temple Ship spoke otherwise of their intentions.

"… We have." Bradford answered, "The main power reactor has the potential to be the greatest breakthrough in energy technology that we've seen in centuries. Dr. Vahlen has assigned a significant portion of her research teams to that particular field. We can go there first if you'd like."

Bailey glanced at Tygan. "I hope you're ready for the proverbial… drink from the fire hose."

Tygan held up his tablet and smiled, "Absolutely."

* * *

Lily Shen was in heaven.

After weeks and weeks of nagging her father about visiting Remnant, he finally acquiesced. Lily thought she'd lost any chance of going when her father mentioned that trouble seemed to be brewing in Vale, and that he was concerned for her safety. She knew it was selfish to still try and find a way to see Ruby's homeworld even in the face of danger, but Lily couldn't help it. A whole new world! Filled with legendary heroes to fight off monsters and keep the people safe. She'd just have to be careful if things were getting dangerous. But of course, none of that mattered unless she could convince her father to let her go. As luck would have it, though, help came from the unlikeliest of places.

Captain Beagle.

Lily was ashamed to admit that one of the conversations she had with her father got a little… heated. Loud enough that Beagle poked his head in to see if everything was alright. Rather than yell at the Captain for intruding, her father took the opportunity to use another opinion to help Lily see reason. After all, Beagle had been to Remnant on multiple occasions and could attest to the fact that Remnant was too dangerous. In that case, Lily wouldn't be able to argue that it was just her father being overly protective: he'd have the word of a highly-trained operative to point to. Except the unthinkable happened and Beagle sided with Lily on the matter. Sure, tensions were getting a little higher in Vale, what with Blake having her little episode in her latest match, but security had increased to compensate. Huntsmen were everywhere, Ironwood had doubled Atlas's ground presence, and Lily could easily stick with XCOM operatives for additional safety. In fact, Bradford had asked him to take the next 'shift' supervising the Valean Recon Division, so why not bring Lily along? H'd be heading to the comm facilities MacAuley had set up, so Lily could see some of the sights on their way to the Beacon dorms. She could even help Beagle make some adjustments to the hardware. He'd seen the way she tinkered with stuff down in Engineering. Someone like her could be pretty useful after a little bit of instruction. And the Comm room was out of the way and known to nobody except for XCOM and Ozpin's gang. So how about it, Doc?

After her father agreed, it only took Lily five minutes to grab the bag she had pre-packed and race over to the hangar where the Captain told her to meet him. A quick shuttle ride (not aboard the Skyranger, much to Lily's disappointment) took them down to the old XCOM base, and while Lily would have loved to spend some time exploring the station where her father spent the last year and a half saving the world, Remnant wasn't going to wait.

"Earth-to-Remnant jumps used to be impossible during the war." Beagle commented as they waited for the on-base techs to warm up the relay. "Damn thing took up way more juice than we had available, and Bradford wasn't about to shut down the entire base just so Vahlen could tinker with a technology that _might_ work. Now that she's refined her methods, along with the war being over... well, we figured that it couldn't hurt to give the old Anthill a new purpose."

The techs indicated that the portal was ready, and Lily followed Beagle's lead as they prepped for the crossing. A couple of button pushes here, a mysterious portal thingy there, and Lily found herself standing in a small field with a grinning Aussie.

"Drop point, Alpha." He explained with a sweeping gesture, "This is where it all began with Team RWBY, or so I'm told. Technically it's on the outskirts of Grimm territory, but we set up motion sensors around here a week ago… err, last night, depending on whose perspective you're looking at it from. Anyway, it's secluded enough where nobody will notice a giant portal pop into existence, and we can see any Grimm within half a mile of here with a push of a button. I checked beforehand, and the place was deserted, so we'll be good before we reach the campus. We're on a bit of a schedule, since Bradford really is concerned with security, so we don't have time to meander and explore right now. You'll have a chance to wander and get lost some other time, yeah?"

Anything Beagle had time to show her was more than enough for Lily, especially since Beacon still had plenty of sights and people for her to enjoy. Huntsmen walked around with their weapons casually hanging off their hip or strapped to their back. It reminded Lily of all the security she'd seen walking around the Temple Ship, but the armaments carried by these students looked far more exotic. And the Faunus! Lily knew that some chose to hide their heritage like Blake used to, but Lily saw more than one tourist sporting rabbit ears or a tiger tail. She wished that she could just go up and talk to some of these people, but she knew that it would be socially inappropriate. Plus, Beagle said they didn't have time to kill.

The campus itself felt nothing short of magical. Lily recalled taking a trip with her father to Disneyland, and remembered being awestruck by the giant castle in the center of the park. Beacon, however, dwarfed that sense of wonder by a mile. It felt like she was entering an elaborate fortress as she and Beagle walked down the main thoroughfare. Tiled walkways, arching structures, and bright lights all came together to give a unified image of strength and elegance. Off in the distance, the Amity Colosseum sat languorously in the sky, and Lily felt a small pang of sadness that she couldn't be there watching the fights between supernaturally gifted warriors from across the world.

"C'mon, this way." Beagle called out. As Lily caught up with her guide, he passed her a scroll and said, "Check out this awesome replay from the latest fight."

Lily's heart soared at the thought of watching a bit of combat, then a brief sense of confusion set in when she saw simple text on the screen:

 _Need to take a roundabout way to the comm room. Brad's been paranoid about tails, so we have to stop by the occupied dorms for a few minutes and 'rest' before moving on through a back way._

Tails? Why would Central Officer Bradford be worried about Faun-

… Oh.

For a few minutes, Lily had let herself get caught up in the wonder of a strange new world and forget the reason why her father didn't want her to come here in the first place. Well, Beagle seemed to know what he was doing, so Lily knew she'd be fine so long as she stuck with him.

"Holy shit, that was badass!" Lily said, pleased with herself for remembering to go along with the charade as she handed the scroll back to Beagle. The Captain raised an eyebrow at her.

"Your dad know you've got a mouth like that?" He cracked a grin and threw her a wink, "I knew there was a reason I liked you."

They entered the lobby for one of the dorms and dropped down into a pair of sofas in the corner. Lily pulled a small journal out of her backpack and started taking notes (what she'd seen so far, questions she had for Ruby, etc.) while Beagle let out a weary sigh and pulled up his scroll again. Lily glanced up at him now and again, and noticed that he looked pretty bored. Every now and then, however, she watched his eyes flick up from the device in his hand, scan the room for a few seconds, and then return to browsing the images on his screen. Aside from the occasional student, though, nobody seemed to be coming in or out. After a few minutes, Beagle got up with a "C'mon, we're gonna be late," and the two set off again. After a few seconds of walking, Beagle passed Lily the scroll again.

 _Motion sensors aren't picking up anything unusual, so I think we're good._

They left the building through a back door that led them through an unused garden trail before ending up at another building. Beagle waved his scroll over the lock next to the door, and the two of them slipped inside. Down the hall, up the stairs, right at the intersection, and they came to a stop in front of a dorm room door. A few specific knocks later, and Lily found herself looking at another operative standing in front of a giant mess of technology.

The operative snapped a salute at Beagle, but eyed Lily with concern. "What's with the kid?"

"Wanted to come along." Beagle answered, "Besides, I'm just here to check on things real quick before I head over to Amity. Even though Ironwood's got his panties in a twist about us trying to replace his security, Central still wants eyes on the Colosseum."

Lily's head shot up. The Colosseum? The Captain never said anything about going there when he was talking to her dad earlier. Heck, he didn't even say anything to Lily even after they made it to Remnant. She must have had confusion written all over her face, because Beagle looked down at her and winked. What did that mean?

"You guys come through Alpha?" Timmons asked.

"Yeah." Beagle answered, his tone suddenly wary "There a problem?"

The operative handed Beagle a tablet, "Maybe. Been keeping an eye on it all day with the motion sensors. Saw a spike of Grimm activity in the last few hours. Nothing major, but it's still statistically significant. Do you think…?"

"That it's related to Sabertooth's match? Yeah, I wouldn't count out that possibility." The Captain scanned through the timestamped data for a minute before handing the tablet back to Timmons. He poked his head into the room, glanced around for a second, and gave the operative a pat on the shoulder. "Welp, guess I _really_ have some shit to do now. I was just gonna take the next great Doctor Shen to watch some matches at the Colosseum, but this sounds like something the big wigs need to hear. Something tells me I better deliver the news in person. Keep up the good work, Timmons. I'll be on comms, so give me a shout if you see anything else that's fishy."

"Aye aye, sir." Timmons answered with a smart salute before turning to Lily with a grin, "Have fun at the Colosseum."

"Won't be all fun and games." Beagle said, putting on a mockingly stern face as he turned to his companion, "We should be able to reach Amity with plenty of time before the next match starts, and I expect detailed notes about the variety of weapons you see along the way and how they could be integrated with XCOM hardware."

Lily suppressed a giggle as she offered Beagle a salute to match the one from Timmons and followed the Captain down the hall.

"Sir, yes sir."

* * *

"May I join you, Doctor?"

Vahlen looked up to see the new scientist standing at the end of her table. Given that she only stayed with Bradford's tour group for a little while before excusing herself and returning to the labs, she wasn't quite sure what to make of Tygan just yet. He seemed genuine enough, but impressions were easy to fake for some people. Well, if one thing remained true in Vahlen's experience, it was that science never lied. No time like the present to formulate a true opinion on her newest colleague.

"By all means. Please." Vahlen answered, waving Tygan over while returning to her work, "Though I'm surprised to see that you're not glued to the Councilman's side."

"Councilman Bailey retired with your Central Officer for a private discussion some time ago." Tygan explained as he joined Vahlen at the table, "While I've been exercising my free reign to explore whatever part of the ship I feel merits my scientific attention for the last half hour, I genuinely meant what I said when I expressed interest in working with you. Moreover, I believe that spending some time in the labs would be a good place to get a sense of XCOM's research priorities."

A diplomatic statement that didn't exactly say much. The Chief Scientist adjusted the magnification on her scope and checked the illuminated sample again. "The labs is where we conduct our research, yes. An excellent observation, Doctor."

The silence that followed her sarcastic comment caused Vahlen to wonder if she had stepped out of line. She reminded herself that Tygan hadn't spent the last eight months around people like MacAuley, Beagle, Van Doorn, Xiao Long, Valkyrie… besides, he did say that he held a great deal of respect and admiration for her work, and yet she decided to start off their first real interaction with a rude remark. With a sigh, she pulled herself away from the scope and offered offered her full attention to her guest.

"I apologize. My work here has a tendency to be… stressful at times. My associates can attest to the fact that I tend to get snippy when a particular project isn't going my way."

"She's not wrong." One of the other lab techs called out from across the room. Vahlen noticed that the apology and attempt at levity had the intended effect, as Tygan seemed to brighten a little at her words. "Let's try this again."

She held out her hand and put on a smile that Weiss could be proud of. "Welcome to XCOM's research division, Doctor Tygan. How may I help you?"

Tygan glanced over at the scope sitting behind Vahlen. "Perhaps the better question is 'how can I help _you_?' You said that your work is giving you some trouble, yes? Perhaps a fresh perspective on the matter can be of use."

"Oh, that? It's more of a side project, really." He couldn't know about Remnant until Bradford gave the OK. How should she phrase this? "One of our operatives was… ah… injured by a Grimm in the field. Given that the soldier quickly became irrationally aggressive shortly thereafter, I'm conducting blood tests to see if there was a toxic agent introduced in the operative's system from the attack."

Tygan furrowed his eyebrows. "Venomous Grimm? That does sound concerning. However, given my background in biochemistry, perhaps this is something where I may be able to offer my professional opinion. If you don't mind…?"

"By all means." Vahlen answered, gesturing to the scope, "I admit that my strong suit is with physics rather than biology, so I wouldn't be surprised if there's something I'm missing. My only fear is that I lack the luxury of time, as I wonder if the agent will decompose and become undetectable if I take too long trying to find it."

While that statement was mostly true, the real reason for Vahlen's time limit was likewise not exactly something she was at liberty to reveal. She watched as Tygan took a moment to familiarize himself with the equipment before he directed his attention towards the sample. The two of them very quickly fell into a comfortable cadence, with Tygan pointing out various details and Vahlen comparing them against the notes she'd already made. He didn't find anything new for the most part, but his professionalism and completionist attitude impressed Vahlen. Additionally, Tygan's comments were clear, precise, and succinct, which conveyed to the Chief Scientist a deep understanding of the subject matter at hand. After only a few minutes, it became clear to her why Bailey had picked him as the Council's scientific representative.

Vahlen, however, noticed that something had clearly caught Tygan's attention when her research partner grew unusually quiet. She looked up at the lack of observational callouts ceased, and she saw Tygan staring intently through the scope.

"Fascinating…" He whispered, "I'm not sure how I missed this before."

"Doctor? What are you seeing?" Vahlen asked, her curiosity piqued.

Tygan pulled away from the scope and gestured for Vahlen to take his place. "There is a pattern of damage to the blood cells that is… familiar."

Vahlen looked through the scope, though she wasn't sure why this had grabbed his attention so completely. "Yes… we made a note of this pattern earlier, and attributed it to natural deterioration. What's so intriguing about it?"

"I'm looking at it again, and it reminds me of a phenomenon I saw several months ago."

That caught Vahlen's attention. "During the war?"

"Yes. The Council bought several Berserker corpses from XCOM -around June, I believe- and I was part of the team assigned to conducting as many useful studies as we could think of. My sub-team's particular focus was blood work, which was partially inspired by reports of your success in developing Combat Stims for XCOM's operatives. After we managed to create a serum that achieved similar results to your stimulants, we decided to try and continue our search for further applications of the creature's blood."

"I'm certain you discovered that the untreated blood is toxic." Vahlen guessed, "One of my first experiments after acquiring a Berserker sample was to test the raw toxicity."

Tygan nodded, "Correct, but we _also_ discovered a way to… well, I suppose 'supercharging' would be a crude way to describe it. In an agitated state, the contents of the stimulant are able to drastically outperform the conventional combat stim, but they do attack the surrounding cells, very similar to the damage seen in your sample."

A shiver ran down Vahlen's spine. "Did you… use your agitated serum on live subjects?"

"Not human subjects, if that's what you're wondering. We aren't brutes, Doctor." Tygan said defensively, "But we did run injection tests on lab rodents, which is how we were able to compare the performance differences between the two stimulants."

"What were the side effects? Aside from the cellular damage."

"Since the chemical agents are drawn to the electric signals of the brain, there is a high risk that the inherent damage caused by the Berserker blood sends the user into Stage II, potentially Stage III shock."

As much as Vahlen wanted to believe that Blake's actions weren't a result of PTSD, the alternative of active sabotage was even worse. And this new information from Tygan just raised the chances of option B.. While it was ridiculous to think that the poison injected by Mercury was derived from Berserker blood, it was perfectly within reason that life existed on Remnant that was capable of producing the same result. Unless… was Remnant the original homeworld of Mutons? Depending on how long ago they were invaded and subjugated by the Ethereals, it was possible that humans on Remnant have no recorded history of the event. Or perhaps the Mutons were so deep into Grimm territory that the people of Remnant didn't even know of their existence. But then…?

No, too many questions that didn't help with any of Vahlen's immediate concerns.

"How certain are you that this is the case, Doctor?" She asked Tygan.

"Not certain at all." Tygan answered, "As you can see, the cellular damage is very similar to natural degeneration. Since we have seen nothing yet that indicates a strain of Grimm similar to the Berserker, Occam's Razor suggests that we should suspect the more likely answer unless we find more conclusive evidence. The similarities are enough that a non-zero chance exists, however, and I may have a way to confirm or refute my hypothesis."

"Go on…"

"My research into Berserker blood revealed some intriguing chemical behavior. One such experiment produced a very clear biomarker after I introduced an external reagent and let the reaction run until it achieved equilibrium." Tygan explained, "If the Grimm's venom is similar to the Berserker blood in its composition and structure, we can concoct and apply the reagent to produce those biomarkers."

Good. Supporting evidence is exactly what Vahlen needed right now. "How long would it take?"

Tygan hummed as he tried to recall the details of his research team's work. "It will take some time to contact my associates from the war so that I can acquire the specifics of replicating the experiment. Once that is done, however, it should only take two hours to develop the catalyst, and the test takes another five hours to fully mature and produce the biomarkers. All told? Twelve hours at the most. Hopefully the toxin doesn't fully degenerate by then."

Vahlen ran the numbers in her head and figured that the experiment gave her one hour of Remnant time before she would have an answer. While she would have liked a smaller window, Vahlen decided she would take what she could get. But the process needed to start now.

"If you don't mind, can you contact your colleagues now? I need to confer with Doctor Shen, and then bring this to the Central Officer's attention when he's finished with Councilman Bailey."

Tygan nodded. "It would be my pleasure. If there is indeed a strain of Grimm that is displaying venomous properties, it is vital that we learn more about it as soon as possible. I'll see that work begins immediately."

"Thank you, Doctor."

* * *

Bradford shut and locked the door to his private quarters and approached the table with the waiting Councilman. While he was slightly relieved that Bailey agreed to a one-on-one conversation, the Central Officer was also surprised that his guest was willing to give up his security detail and lock himself in a room with a man he'd spent the last few months quarreling with. Perhaps he trusted Bradford to realize that assassinating him here would be a suicidal move for XCOM? Or maybe Bradford had completely misjudged him. Either way, the time had come to begin with the main purpose of Bailey's delegation.

"Thank you for the… warm welcome aboard the Temple Ship." Bailey began as Bradford took his seat, "While it is unfortunate that we lack the time for a more… thorough tour of your facilities, it is clear to me that your organization runs with… impressive efficiency."

Bradford bowed his head in acknowledgment of the Councilman's compliment. "We are in agreement on that, believe me. The men and women working behind the scenes of XCOM never cease to amaze me."

"You'll find that we agree on a great many things, Bradford." Bailey said wry smile, "But let us get down to the business of things we… _don't_ agree upon."

Now came the hard part. Bradford held a debriefing with Van Doorn shortly after their conversation with the council, and they came to the conclusion that Bradford needed to start off his serious conversation with the Councilman with a very crucial action. It was Van Doorn's idea (as Bradford was too prideful to admit to its necessity), and it took a fair amount of convincing to get the Central Officer to come around to the idea.

"There's something I'd like to say, first." Bradford started. With Bailey giving him a curious look, Bradford closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

"I… I need to formally apologize, Councilman. I've talked things over with my advisers and spent some time introspecting and trying to figure out why things played out the way they did these last few months. I… I wasn't entirely myself shortly after the war's conclusion. Perhaps the strain of command was finally getting to me, or perhaps the victory over an impossible foe had gone to my head… I don't know. But I do know that I was in a poor frame of mind when we started our discussions regarding what to do with the Temple Ship. And after multiple meetings with the council in this… unfortunate state, our relations had devolved into an embarrassing mess. One where I wasn't willing to admit my fault to a Council representing the interests of the world I had spent months trying to protect.

"Looking back, it was foolish and paranoid to think that you wanted some degree of oversight put into place for this ship for malicious reasons. And even if the Council _was_ somehow compromised, the way I acted certainly did nothing to help the situation. Honestly… it was a huge relief to me that you were willing to personally oversee this delegation, because it's easier to admit my mistakes to a single person behind closed doors than to an entire council. And for that, I thank you."

Bailey considered Bradford's words before glancing over the Central Officer's shoulder and commenting, "That's a nice wet bar you've built for your quarters."

"I… thanks, Councilman." Bradford answered with confusion. Of all the responses he'd anticipated, that one was pretty low on the list, "It's a collection of gifts from my operatives after they came back from their various shore leaves during the December holidays."

"An… admirable gesture. Do you mind if I make use of it?" Bailey asked.

"… By all means. Drinks are meant to be shared, after all."

The Councilman got up and availed himself to the options offered by Bradford's cabinet. As he browsed, he resumed their conversation, "You saved humanity from utter annihilation. It may seem to you like we of the Council have... forgotten that fact, and I'm certain that our straight-to-business attitude doesn't help. I can assure, however, that XCOM's many feats in the face of… impossible odds remains at the forefront of our thoughts during our dealings with your operation."

He finally decided on a bottle cognac (Bradford wasn't at all surprised that the Councilman had expensive tastes), and brought it to the table with a pair of glasses. "You are also human, with all the qualities -good and bad- that come with it. Your… explanation regarding your actions following the war makes sense, and now I ask you to see things from my perspective. To understand why the Council acted the way it did." He picked up his glass and considered its contents while he continued, "As you have likely concluded, your… irrational behavior during our meetings raise suspicion among my peers. For someone who so selflessly and courageously defended humanity from an... enemy unknown, why is he now treating the Council, a collection of nations that have backed him every step of the way, with open... hostility? Several explanations were put forward, though the true cause remained… uncertain. No matter the case, however, this… change… was reason for great concern.

"Even so, it would be dishonest to say that we... reacted in the best possible way. The sudden change in your attitude sparked a similarly... abrupt shift in ours. Perhaps if we had been more level-headed in the early days following the war, all of this could have been avoided."

Bradford took the other glass and sampled the alcohol. He caught a brief look of distaste crossing the Councilman's face, and wondered if he was breaching some sort of etiquette by taking the first sip. Oh well, he was a soldier not a socialite. "It means a great deal to hear you say that, and I can assure you that I am no longer in an unreasonable frame of mind. I think you and I can both see that XCOM is making the most out of its possession of the Temple Ship, and that we are more than happy to cooperate with the Council in a global effort to restore some semblance of order and safety to our planet."

"That is good to hear, Bradford. I've received word from the Security Delegation that your presence was… greatly appreciated. The after reports were promising, but I'd like to hear your… personal opinion regarding the event."

The two of them discussed the meeting that Bradford had attended the previous day. Bradford kept an eye on the glass in Bailey's hand, and waited until the Councilman had sampled his own Cognac before Bradford did the same. The more they talked, however, the more Bradford got a sense for Bailey's genuine concern for the safety of Earth. Although the Grimm posed the most immediate threat to humanity's safety, Bailey also raised questions about how XCOM's advances could be used to improve other, more mundane, security concerns. Transportation, infrastructure, communication... when Bailey started pointing to several specific R&D projects as potential candidates for these initiatives, Bradford realized just how closely the Councilman was paying attention during the general tour.

This man, it seemed, headed the Council for good reason. The secrecy of their debriefs during the war meant that Bradford could never properly gauge the character of anyone on the Council (understandably so), but now… now he felt almost ashamed for letting the shitstorm between the Council and XCOM brew for so long. Bailey cared about the well-being of Earth. Bradford could feel it through the passion he poured into their conversation. His worldview could be considered shrewd and pragmatic, sure, but the safety of humanity was the driving force behind every single plan he put forward during their conversation.

Perhaps… would he care about the safety of extraterrestrial humans?

Bradford knew that the subject of RWBY would come up during their talk. It had to. Even before the Central Officer's view of Bailey had changed so drastically, this delegation was an olive branch. If the Council had found out that Bradford had kept something as huge as a transdimensional portal to another world hidden from them after they sent one of their own to personally meet with the staff of XCOM… oh, there would be hell to pay. But while before Bradford was trying to find a way to broach the subject in the least damaging way possible, now he wondered if something good might come out of that part of his talk with the Councilman.

He waited until there was a brief lull in the conversation as Bailey poured himself another serving of Cognac. "Councilman. There is… another topic I'd like to discuss with you."

Bailey looked up from his drink. "Oh?"

"It's about some recruits our organization picked up back in March. They're… well, I suppose the best word for them is 'unique.' "

"This wouldn't be about the men and women of Strike Eight, would it?" Bailey smiled, "RWBY and JNPR, if I'm not mistaken."

Zhang would have been proud of the pokerface that Bradford maintained when the Councilman dropped that little bombshell. "Yes. It would. Since it seems you're at least somewhat informed of their nature, perhaps it would be best if you lay out anything else you know so that I don't repeat old news."

"Very well. They are a band of fighters who possess… supernatural combat prowess. Most cohesive in teams of four, they are widely regarded by your staff as the single greatest factor of XCOM's… incredible success. I have heard reports that the battle on the Temple Ship would have been… catastrophic if not for them." Bailey smiled, "The Council has known about your ace in the hole for some time, Bradford. I was not planning on leaving your ship until we… discussed the details, but I wanted you to be the one to raise the subject."

So he didn't know about Remnant, at least. Well, XCOM was a big place with a lot of people. Bradford knew he should have been more realistic in his expectations, though Bailey's statement made it seem like he had quite a few members of XCOM coming out to talk to the Council about the huntsmen.

Bailey took Bradford's silence as permission to continue. "While XCOM may not be as… tight-lipped as you would like to believe, it may bring you comfort to know that all reports we received on Strike Eight exhibited… fierce loyalty to No-Scope, Dakka, and their subordinates. They were especially quiet about the… origin of these fighters." The Councilman swirled his glass pensively before glancing up at Bradford with a slight smirk, "On a related note, I'm curious to know XCOM's process in… developing call-signs for its operatives."

Bradford rolled his eyes. "You've already met my adjutant, Sargent MacAuley."

"I'm not surprised."

"He took it upon himself to 'welcome' RWBY and JNPR to Earth."

Silence, then, "… Even during our… misunderstandings, I've never known you to misspeak, Bradford."

"Correct."

"Then I take it you intend to… expand on that statement." The Councilman said.

"It is why I brought them up in the first place." Bradford explained, "It is also why I hope you will appreciate the magnitude of the situation I found myself in and why I made the decision to omit any details of it in my reports to the Council."

"When you say magnitude…"

"This is Vermilion Level, Councilman."

That gave Bailey pause. "… Remind yourself that the last time intel was classified as Vermilion-"

"-was when we confirmed first alien contact before the Long War." Bradford finished, "I am well aware, Councilman."

Bailey downed his Cognac. Apparently the time for social formalities had come and gone. "This answers quite a few questions, though it also raises others."

"When the Hyperwave Relay finished its startup process, it somehow bridged a connection to another world." Bradford explained, "We don't know where, and we don't even know when, but that bridge is what brought RWBY, and later JNPR, to Earth. Remnant, their homeworld, is overrun with Grimm, and so children are encouraged at a young age to train and aspire to become Huntsmen: highly-specialized fighters who protect their kingdoms from the forces of darkness."

"Do take a moment, Bradford, and realize how… ridiculous this sounds." Bailey said.

Bradford couldn't help but laugh. "Believe me, Councilman, I've spent the last nine months coming to terms with it myself. But if you could see them in action, all traces of doubt would be removed from your mind."

"The Council has seen recordings. We… attributed the fantastic displays of power to your Psionic program."

"And did you ever wonder why nobody else could summon ice from thin air? Or protect themselves with hard light shielding? Or move faster than the eye could track?"

Bailey didn't have an answer for that. After giving his guest a moment to digest the implications, Bradford continued. "The good news is that they come in peace, as you can probably guess. They were adamant about helping us fend off the Ethereal invasion, and they never once wavered in their conviction to see our war through to the end. That is likely why none of your contacts were willing to betray the true nature of their secret."

"When you say 'The good news,' I assume there is also… less-than-desirable news as well."

"Unfortunately so." Bradford said, "As if the idea of mystical warriors fighting the forces of darkness isn't enough of a fairy tale for you, there appears to be other parties interested in destabilizing the tenuous peace and safety on Remnant."

"Tenuous?"

"I'm sure you've seen the reports regarding the Grimm on Earth, and how they are drawn to regions of unrest. Imagine how easy it would be to provoke an attack on a world so overrun with the creatures when all you need to do is start a panic."

"EXALT's wet dream." Bailey muttered.

Bradford nodded. "I've been in contact with… well, I suppose it would be Remnant's equivalent of the Council. They are concerned that this third party is a serious threat and not just some low-grade fringe element stirring up trouble for its own sake."

"And if XCOM helps deal with this… problem…" Bailey mused.

"… Then we'd have a strong platform from which we can begin diplomatic relations with an entire planet, yes." Bradford said, "Captain Rose and her compatriots foresaw this possibility almost as soon as they arrived on Earth, and it is one of the motivating factors behind their willingness to help us against the aliens."

"While our global economy is… unstable in the wake of the war, the technology boon we earned from our victory is… substantial."

"We don't need a full-scale military commitment." Bradford agreed, "In fact, we already have an organization that is uniquely familiar with the way hutnsmen operate, experienced with alien-grade technology, and possesses real combat experience against the Grimm threat."

Bailey cracked a smile at Bradford's thinly-veiled proposal. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say you had this planned from the beginning of our… discussion."

"I just didn't know how diplomatically I needed to word it." Bradford said.

The two of them took a moment to sit back and enjoy another pour of Cognac. Finally, Bailey spoke up. "This is indeed a most… delicate situation."

"I'm glad you can see that." Bradford said, "How do you propose that we proceed?"

"By keeping this classified until we have the chance to further… assess the extent of Remnant's instability." Bailey answered, "I still have many questions, but it is clear that this… unique situation will require a great deal of finesse. I will make a report to the rest of the Council immediately. They will understand our… silence when they see the Vermillion classification."

Evidently, Bailey meant 'immediately' in the literal sense, as he pulled out a tablet and began tapping on it as he continued to speak. "Additionally, I would like to visit Remnant personally. It sounds as though you have already begun… diplomatic relations with key players. I believe I can assist in the capacity of an ambassador to Earth."

Bradford was both afraid of this and expecting it. If only this meeting had happened a week later and the situation with the Vytal Festival and (hopefully) been resolved, he could be more comfortable about Bailey's visit to Remnant. Still, it would be a terrible idea to deny the Councilman's request at this stage of the negotiation, not after he'd laid everything out on the table only moments ago.

"Of course, Councilman. I can start working on that once we're finished here. How soon would you like to make the visit?"

With a final tap, Bailey returned the tablet to its pocket in his jacket. "As soon as possible. I do not doubt the… veracity of your claims. But you cannot tell someone that you possess access to another world and expect them to exhibit… patience."

"Fair point." Bradford said with a chuckle, "I'll call ahead and have the technicians warm up the relay for a jump. I take it you plan to bring your security chief along?"

"As well as Dr. Tygan. I am certain he will not wish to pass up this… opportunity."

Twenty minutes later, Bradford found himself standing in front of the Hyperwave Relay with Bailey as the technicians went through the final steps for activation and Dr. Tygan finished up a project he had down in the labs. The two men had talked almost nonstop as they made their preparations, with Bradford trying to answer as many of the Councilman's questions about Remnant as he could.

"This… Vytal Festival is a joint effort between all four Kingdoms?"

Bradford nodded. "Correct. Civilians and huntsmen all convene in one location for a celebration of peace and a show of friendly competition between the academies that train the next generation of fighters."

"I can see how this creates a… delicate situation for yourself and Ozpin."

"I think 'a pile of dynamite doused in gasoline' would be more accurate." Bradford said. Over Bailey's shoulder, he spotted both Vahlen and Shen approaching. "Excuse me for one moment, Councilman."

He walked towards the two doctors and asked in a low tone, "Is everything alright?"

"Most likely, yes." Vahlen said, "But I wanted to let you know that the likelihood of sabotage of Blake's match has gone up in the last half hour."

"Not by much." Shen added, "Though it's still enough where it should be brought to your attention."

Shen's pointed look at Bailey didn't escape Bradford's notice. Of all the times for more bad news, the Central Officer needed it to be 'not right now.' While Bailey would probably understand if their excursion got called off, he probably wouldn't be happy about it. Perhaps a good compromise would be to pop in, show him a match at the Colosseum to demonstrate the potential of huntsmen, and then leave.

"He needs to see Remnant for himself." Bradford explained, "We'll watch the next match of the tournament and then come back. Ironwood has doubled the presence of his Knights on Amity since Blake's incident, and there's an APB out for Emerald and her team, so I don't think they'll be stupid enough to pull another stunt at the Colosseum. I've also got some operatives on-site. I think Captain Beagle is coordinating their efforts now."

"Ah, right. From the Comms facility." Shen said.

Bradford raised an eyebrow. This felt like a trap. Why did this feel like a trap? "Beags has always believed in leading by example. He should be at the Colosseum. Is that a problem, Shen?"

Was that… anger in Shen's eyes? "Not for you. Is there room for one more on your trip to Remnant? The good Captain and I need to have a conversation."

The sound of footsteps pounding into the room announced Tygan's arrival. Bradford had no idea what beef Shen evidently had with Beagle, but something told him that it would be a bad idea to deny the Engineer's request. "Sounds like you're just in time, Doctor." He glanced at Vahlen, "Am I to assume that you're coming along as well?

Vahlen nodded, with some hesitation. "… Yes. After talking with Dr. Shen, there are a few things on the Colosseum that I wish to examine. And I might need to get another blood sample from Blake."

"These things you need to take care of… are they things that Ironwood would approve of?" Bradford asked, eyebrow raised.

"Hopefully, yes. He did grant us access to the CCTS tower, after all. This would just be more of the same."

"Did your scan find anything wrong with the CCTS?"

"Not yet, No."

Vahlen seemed uncertain of her answer, which worried Bradford slightly. However, part of the chain of command meant not second-guessing his subordinates. If she said she had nothing to report, then he needed to take her word for it. "Well, if Ironwood needs someone to chew out, it might as well be me." Bradford sighed. "Let's get going."

* * *

A/N: Getting reeaaaallly close to the end of the Vytal Arc now. I actually thought I could cram it all into this chapter, but then I slowly discovered that I have a lot more scenes I want to fit in than I had originally anticipated. But I still had a lot of fun writing this chapter, and I look forward to the future Adventures of Vahlen & Tygan: Science Bros. (team name for Bradford and Bailey is still pending)


	16. First Blood

A/N: Two things two note before we begin. First, an astute reader pointed out last chapter that it would be physically impossible for the Temple Ship to drop off Beagle and Lily at Alpha, given that Earth and Remnant are spacially synced and Alpha's exit point is the old Anthill. So I made the decision to tweak the RWBYCOM's lore a bit by modifying the chapter to show that the old Hyperwave has been rebuilt and is still live. Given that the war is over and the Anthill no longer needs to be the central hub for humanity's defense against extinction (and probably with the help of some tech from the Temple Ship), it's possible for them to divert all of the base's power to opening the portal for a few minutes to allow for an Earth-to-Remnant jump. And since LW has multiple alien bases instead of just the one from vanilla, it should also be mechanically reasonable for additional relays to be constructed.

Second...

HOLY SHIT GUYS, LONG WAR 2 DROPPED YESTERDAY. If you haven't read through the list of new features included in the overhaul (and it really is an overhaul), then I highly recommend you do. Because the changes are ridiculous. New missions! New classes! New weapons! There's actual strategy involved in the strategy layer now!

In all seriousness, though, this does segue nicely into stuff I planned to bring up sometime in the next couple of chapters. We're getting close to the end of the Vytal arc, for reals this time, and I'm planning on taking a few weeks 'off' so that I can spend more time planning out the next section of the story (in addition to playing ungodly amounts of LW2). One thing I'm looking forward to during this period is spending more time conversing with you guys and bouncing ideas off of each other, since some of you have likely noticed that I don't respond as quickly to PMs as I used to. But we have to get through the next couple of chapters first, and I've got a feeling that they're gonna be a doozy.

For Bradford & Friends, anyway.

* * *

Lily watched Ironwood look up from the scroll in his hands and study his guests carefully. The exasperated expression he wore as he stared at Beagle told her that the General was already familiar with the Captain (no wait… Sergeant) and his antics. Well, they were here on serious business this time, and it looked like Ironwood could see that as well.

"First, thank you for bringing this to my attention." Ironwood said, handing the scroll back to Beagle, "I know that your Bradford and I view things… differently, but it appears his decision was smarter than I had originally given him credit for."

"I'll be sure to pass the sentiment along." Beagle answered with a surprisingly respectful nod.

The General nodded. "Second, have you reported this to Ozpin yet?"

"No sir. While the VRD is a Valean entity, Bradford made it clear to all of his operatives that you are the Head of Security for this event and that any intel we acquire should go through the chain of command appropriately."

Lily doubted that Bradford said anything like that. From what she'd heard from her father, she thought it was more likely that XCOM couldn't afford to piss off Atlas more than it already had, and that olive branches should be extended whenever possible.

"I… see." Ironwood said, "Well, I actually have a meeting with Ozpin shortly, so I'll bring him up to speed when I see him. Unfortunately, there isn't much we can do at this stage other than keep our troops on guard. Ozpin and I have come to an agreement that shutting down the tournament at this stage would likely have consequences that far outweigh the benefits."

"Consequences that far outweigh the mass pandemonium that follows a terrorist attack?" The Captain asked.

Dammit Beagle. Ironwood narrowed his eyes at the subtext of his guest's question, but gave no further sign of his disapproval. "It's a 'damned if you do, damned if you don't' scenario, Sergeant. The four kingdoms have consistently held this event every two years for the better part of a century. Gutting it now would ignite a wave of rumors and conspiracies that have the potential to last for an insidiously long time. I agree that a terrorist attack would likewise be a disaster," Ironwood acknowledged, "But that is why you are here, is it not?"

Score one for Ironwood, though Lily knew Beagle to be levelheaded enough to avoid rising to the General's bait. Instead, he offered a salute and said, "That's the idea, sir, though you know what they say about plans and the enemy."

"The former never survives first contact with the latter." Ironwood answered with a dark chuckle, "I guess that one gets around, doesn't it?"

Beagle laughed at the irony of the General's words. "More than you know, sir. If we're done here, I should go brief my people."

"I have nothing more to add if you don't. Thank you for your time, Sergeant."

Lily and Beagle were barely out the door of Ironwood's office on the Colosseum when the former stopped dead in her tracks. Standing patiently (and with a scowl on his face, Lily noted) among the crowd of people meandering about the hallways and plazas of the Amity was quite possibly the last person she wanted to see.

Dr. Raymond Shen.

* * *

When Arslan's team first got knocked out of the tournament, she assumed that was it. Spend a week loafing around like a failure and watching her classmates continue to the Doubles and Finals rounds before shipping back to Mistral with her proverbial tail between her legs. Of course, that was before Ruby broke up her pity party, yelled some sense into her, and generously offered to train her team. Arslan had her doubts at first, and after that merciless smackdown of a match, who wouldn't? But by the end of their first scrimmage, Ruby had handily changed the Mistrali's opinion.

RWBY didn't go easy on her team (Arslan probably would have been too insulted by the patronizing attitude to continue if they did), but the tone of the fight felt different all the same. Rather than a cold, calculating onslaught, Arslan felt an air of passion and energy in their scrimmages. More important than that, though, was the sense of camaraderie. Despite working hard to beat the hell out of ABRN, anybody watching their practice matches could tell that RWBY wanted their new friends to succeed. Both sides traded playful taunts alongside the blows, and Ruby never failed to point out whenever Arslan's team pulled off a particularly impressive display of coordination.

It would probably be a stretch to call them good friends, but Arslan had a much higher opinion of Team RWBY now.

The company they kept was… well, Arslan didn't quite know what to make of RWBY's apparent military connections. The Valean Recon Division, wasn't it? Sure, having friends in high (or low, depending on where the VRD got its information) places was helpful, but Arslan thought it was a bit weird that a team of freshmen huntresses were close friends with a SpecOps division. Then again, they apparently had that whole bonding-over-life-and-death-for-three-weeks thing going on, and Arslan had no way of truly knowing how much of an impact that had. If Sergeant Durand was any indication, though…

She hadn't seen that particular member of the VRD in a while, come to think of it. Arslan frequently thought about the words of wisdom the Sergeant had given her in the auditorium while SSSN fought, and they remained one of the primary reasons she worked so hard to train with her team even after they got kicked out of the tournament. Because Durand was right. If the huntsmen gave up fighting because it was too hard, who would take their place? Atlas had a military, sure, but the other three kingdoms spent much less time and capital on homeland security. And, as Ruby pointed out during one of their conversations, the nature of huntsmen made them incredible force multipliers. Their adaptability, their unique semblances, and the four-man team structure meant that they could drastically enhance the efforts of any conventional fighting force that they chose to support. Militaries and militia could probably hold off the Grimm for a while, but Arslan wondered how long before a crack in the armor broke open and the unending tide of darkness came through.

"You look like you are deep in thought, miss Altan. Is everything alright?"

Arslan looked up to see the inquisitive face of Penny Polendina staring back at her. Another one of Ruby's friends. At first, their friendship seemed even more strange than RWBY's relationship with the Recon Division. At least both parties were Valean in the latter case, but befriending a strange girl from Atlas? In the time that Arslan had gotten to know Penny, though, the girls friendship with Ruby made sense. The two were awkward, almost painfully so, and so they got along like two peas in a pod.

"I'm fine." Arslan answered, "These last few days have just given me a lot to think about, that's all."

"I see. Is it something you would like to talk about?"

There was that awkwardness again, though Penny's naivete made it seem almost endearing. "That's alright. Thank you anyway."

"Of course!" Penny said cheerfully, "Any friend of Ruby's is a friend of mine."

And there it was again. Were they really friends? There was a difference between being friendly enough to willingly train with each other and actually being friends. Arslan cast a sideways glance past Penny on her left at the young team leader sitting another seat over. Apparently she saw potential in Arslan's team and actually gave enough of a shit to try and do something about it. Was it because she felt bad about their first match? Or would she have done it regardless?

"'Scuse us! Make way! Team JNPR coming through!"

Arslan's thoughts were interrupted (again) by the loud Nora, though the distraction pulled her out of her thoughts long enough to come to a realization about the present. Here Arslan sat, her team talking animatedly with those boys from Mistral on her right and her newfound acquaintances joking cheerfully on her left as the newcomers settled down with comically oversized buckets of junk food from the concession stand. It didn't exactly matter what Arslan thought about her relationship with Ruby's team. Here they all were, gathered together at the Colosseum to have a good time.

The intricacies of friendship could wait for some other time. For now, she should try to relax and enjoy the fight.

* * *

Lily glowered at her feet as she sat next to her father in the Colosseum. She should have known that getting away with Beagle's little plan was too good to be true. The only plus side was that she got to avoid the brunt of Raymond Shen's wrath because she could honestly say that she had no idea Beagle was up to something when he convinced Dr. Shen to let her go with him to Remnant. Still, she was still considered complicit in the scheme when she didn't demand to be returned to the Temple Ship immediately upon discovering the Captain's true intentions. So Lily got to enjoy the crushing weight of her father's disappointment when he marched her over to sit with him, Bradford, and their guests in the stands. Evidently the bald man sitting next to Bradford was someone important, because her father changed back to his usual pleasant attitude once they reached their seats. Lily knew better than to make a scene and embarrass her father, so she played along with it and watched the combatants get ready down below.

The worst part, though? Lily didn't know either of the huntsmen in the match. Granted, Blake had already fought, but Lily was hoping to see either Pyrrha or even Penny fight. Nope, it was some chick with a dinky-looking purse and an evident passion for designer clothes facing off against some other kid who fancied himself as Remnant's version of Ezio Auditore. Sure, the fight would probably be cool and all, but it would've been nice to have someone to cheer for. Lily looked down at the journal in her lap and idly flipped through the pages. She took Beagle's instructions seriously and actually spent some time trying to sketch out the various huntsmen weapons she saw on the way over to the Colosseum. Maybe if she could do the same for the fighters down below when the match started. Or something. She just really didn't want to be here right now.

A thought came to her. One that might get her out of this situation, even. It carried its risks, though, because it involved a sacred trust between her father and herself. No matter how badly she wanted to be exploring the Colosseum or hanging out with her friends, no matter how many half-baked ideas she cooked up to get out of here, the mere thought of misusing this one, sacred rule and forever breaking her father's trust gave Lily pause. Even if she was in a lot of trouble now, it would be ten times worse if she screwed this up.

But it also presented the opportunity to make amends with her father, and so Lily felt it was worth invoking the agreement that had existed between the two of them for as long as she could remember.

"Hey dad?" Lily quietly asked, so that only Dr. Shen could hear her, "I'm hungry, do you think they have any kimchee outside?"

Dr. Shen studied his daughter, eyebrow raised. But there was no hint of suspicion in his expression, nothing that questioned the intentions of his daughter using their oldest safeword.

"The match is going to start soon, but we can go look."

No matter what had happened between them, no matter where they were at the time, no matter how angry they might be with each other, asking to go look for kimchee marked a request for a truce between them that both parties were required to honor. Neither of them had ever disrespected the Kimchee Pact, and Lily had no intentions of starting now.

Father and daughter stepped out into the outer ring of the Colosseum, and Dr. Shen turned to Lily. She could tell he had a lot of fatherly scolding pent up inside him that he wanted to let out, but his words came out in a neutral, almost comforting tone. "Is everything alright, Lily?"

"I… just wanted to talk to you away from Bradford and his friend. I don't think he needs to hear an apology."

"It would be the second he's heard today, from what I've been told." Dr. Shen said with a chuckle, "But very well. You won't hear any complaints from me."

A small part of Lily wanted to ask what her dad meant by that first part, but she knew she had more important things to say. "I know you're upset because you care about my safety. I know you think that Remnant is a dangerous place, and I also know that you're probably right. I know that you're keenly aware of how badly I've wanted to come here since you got the Hyperwave Relay working, and I know more than anything that you want me to enjoy Remnant when the time is right."

Her father smiled, knowing what was coming next. "But…?"

"There is no but." Lily answered, and she could see the mild surprise on her father's face. "I let my burning desire get the better of me, and… I made a mistake. I'm certain that Captain Beagle wouldn't let me come to any harm, but I still did something that caused you worry, and I know that it was wrong."

Dr. Shen's eyes shone as he held his daughter's gaze. "I cannot tell you how many times your mother told me that we raised you into a fine, young woman. You remind me of that every day, my dear."

Lily blushed slightly, not expecting gentle praise from her father. There was only one thing that remained. "... Dad? I know you want to keep me where you can see me while we're here, but… can I go find Ruby? I want to see her again, and… well… the adults are kind of… boring."

"Even Captain Beagle?" Dr. Shen asked.

"Except Captain Beagle." Lily said, rolling her eyes.

Dr. Shen sighed. "You're right, though. Keeping you on a short leash is high among my priorities right now."

Lily looked glumly at her feet. She knew it was a long shot, but she dare not risk the goodwill she'd just earned and press the matter further.

"However, I trust Captain Rose a great deal." Her father said with a faint smile, "While I'm certain you were in good hands with Captain Beagle, I can't imagine a safer place on Remnant than with Ruby Rose."

Dr. Shen looked down with mild surprise as his daughter latched herself around his midsection and buried her head in his chest. He gently wrapped his arms around her shoulders as he heard her whisper, "I love you, dad."

"And I you, my dear." Dr. Shen answered, holding the hug for a few more moments before letting go of his daughter. "I need to get back to Bradford now. Please do not waste time finding Ruby. I'll feel better when I know you're in her care."

"Of course, dad." Lily said before turning around and dashing down the hall. She had no idea where Ruby was watching the match with her friends, but a quick message on her scroll would fix that. Lily smiled as she imagined Ruby's reaction to finding out that she was on Remnant.

Her day was starting to look up again.

* * *

So it was all true. Everything Bradford told him about the Hyperwave Relay acting as a dimensional door to another world, the people who lived there, and their way of life as they learned to survive in the face of the Grimm. Sure, there were plenty of statements that Bailey couldn't verify by sitting here in a stadium seat, but he could sweat the small stuff later. At the end of the day, nothing changed the fact that Earth now had access to another world. The diplomacy would take some time, to be sure, but a world full of huntsmen like Ruby, Blake, and Pyrrha simply could not be ignored in light of the fact that hostile life existed in the dark reaches of space. Even if it took some time to cultivate a relationship between Earth and Remnant, the benefits would certainly be worth the effort if an invasion like that of the Ethereals came knocking again.

And this Ozpin fellow seemed fascinating. Very soft-spoken and courteous when Bradford introduced them, and very interested in listening to what Bailey had to say. They shared a cordial exchange where Bailey conveyed his desire to act as an ambassador for the nations of Earth alongside Bradford's role as representative of XCOM. Ozpin greeted the offer with a warm reception, and the three men continued speaking on the docks of the Colosseum. Bailey quietly took note of the headmaster's social decorum and compared it to the Councilman's experience with Bradford (the awkward couple of months post-war notwithstanding). He didn't find it hard to believe that the two developed diplomatic ties with relative ease; in some ways, the headmaster almost seemed like an older version of the Central Officer.

The Councilman's only regret was that Ozpin could only spare a few minutes to meet with him and discuss interplanetary politics. It made sense: the festival was winding down with the tournament working through its last few matches, and so Ozpin likely had to pay due attention to a multitude of other ambassadors and delegates from the three foreign kingdoms. With ties to Earth already established thanks to Bradford's hard work, a more formal discussion between Bailey and Ozpin could wait until things quieted down a little. Besides, the tournament itself offered plenty to keep Bailey distracted for his first visit to Remnant.

"Thoughts so far, Councilman?" Bradford asked, clearly pleased with the events of the last half hour.

"Vermillion does not even… begin to describe this." Bailey muttered, "And while the matters of Aura and Semblances aren't particularly… accessible for applications on Earth, Dust more than makes up for it.

Lieutenant Kelly grunted in agreement. "I heard reports of XCOM's experimental ammunition during the war. Magic-in-a-gun sounds pretty damn accessible to me."

Jane looked grumpy, and Bailey couldn't exactly blame her. As much as Bradford tried to finagle an agreement with security at the docks, Atlas personnel was adamant that Kelly surrender her shotgun. It made sense, as civilians wandering around armed and dangerous was a likely recipe for disaster. Even the huntsmen, who Bailey could easily spot with their expressive attire and confident attitudes, didn't seem to be carrying their equipment that Bradford spoke so highly of. After seeing the difficulties with Kelly, Bailey surrendered his pistol without prompting. "As a gesture of good will and trust in the Atlesian security force," he explained as he handed over the weapon to the dock guard.

While the Lieutenant was visibly upset over the loss of her weapon, she still tried to relax in the stadium seats. She leaned back as far as the seat would go with her legs crossed and her arms behind her head and let out a quiet, comfortable sigh. Bailey watched as his security officer took on a persona that was equal parts lazy and unconcerned: the quintessential tournament-goer. He noted that while her posture conveyed a relaxed attitude, the alertness in her eyes and the slight tension in her muscles told a different story. Without a doubt, Bailey made the right choice in picking Lieutenant Kelly as his security chief.

"The crystal formation suspending the Colosseum is of particular interest to me." Tygan said, adding his two cents to the conversation, "The data I briefly reviewed with Dr. Vahlen on the Temple Ship relates to Dust in small quantities. The… magnitude… of Amity's source is truly remarkable."

"With any luck, you'll have plenty of time to research to your heart's content, Doctor." Bradford assured the doctor. In a way, the young man reminded Bradford of his own Chief Scientist at the start of the war: optimistic and full of excitement at the prospect of what research the near future had in store. Granted, scientific excitement seemed a lot more appropriate at the discovery of a new world rather than an extinction-level event for humanity but… Bradford already knew that Vahlen was an odd duck.

"I have to admit, your description of the… dire situation in Vale doesn't quite line up with what we've seen so far." Bailey commented.

"You weren't here before Sergeant Belladonna's match." Bradford pointed out with a sigh, "Though people are definitely excited for the upcoming match and the conclusion of the tournament, the general air is definitely subdued since the last time I was here. Ozpin has his work cut out for him repairing the damage from that unfortunate incident."

"And we will offer what resources we have… available to help." Bailey answered, "You have presented the people of Earth with a… golden opportunity for newfound prosperity and growth after we were pushed to the… brink of destruction."

The Councilman had a point. Before Bradford could respond, Port's voice boomed over the stadium speakers.

" _And now, let's find out who our next combatants will be!_ "

The holographic display winked into existence to show the two familiar slot machine wheels that contained the faces of the remaining contestants. As the wheels began to spin, Bradford could pick out both Pyrrha and Penny among the four faces, though neither of them showed up when the display stopped moving.

" _Coco Adel and Orryn Crohm! Will the two fighters please report to the staging area to begin the match!_ "

Coco. Bradford felt like he'd heard Ruby mention her before. Well at least he could cheer on a Valean competitor, even if it wasn't someone he knew personally. He turned to Bailey and grinned. "Now comes the good part. Strap yourself in, Councilman: you're in for an interesting ride."

* * *

The Finals, huh? Coco would never in a million years have admitted it to anyone else, but she was surprised to find herself representing her team in the final round. Sure, no other team at Beacon had a fanbase like CFVY's, but that didn't really count for much for something like this. Hearts could be won just as easily by a flair for the extravagant as they could by a solid performance in the ring of combat… perhaps even more so. And a top-notch fashion sense was the one area Coco _could_ claim technical superiority without a shadow of a doubt. But combat? Her kickass minigun excelled at mowing down those brainless Grimm that seemed all-too-happy to line up for her, but a one-on-one fight in relatively close quarters with a fellow huntsman did not play to her strengths at all.

But her fans had been vocal. Very vocal. The amount of fan mail Coco received after her victory in the Doubles Rounds was staggering, and almost every one shared a common theme along the lines of "Can't wait to see you kick some ass in the Finals!" So rather than advance Yatsuhashi, who actually had melee as his strong suit, the team agreed that Coco should push on. And in light of the slightly somber mood following that Belladonna kid's unfortunate match, it looked like the people of Remnant could use a bit of flair from Beacon's resident fashionista. Even if Coco didn't win the match, she could certainly put on a show.

Just as it had already done several times today, the Colosseum's lights went down while central platform of the stadium rose up, elevating Coco and a huntsman hailing from Vacuo. From the looks of his attire, the kid probably favored agility over raw power. Opening up with her minigun at the start of the match would probably be a poor idea. Better to dance with him first, try to smack him around a bit with her purse, and then find an opportunity to open up and really tear into him. If anything, the sight of the huntsman running around as she swept her cone of fire across the arena would look really fucking cool. And that's what this tournament was all about, right?

"Hey, Orryn." Coco called out, grinning when the kid across from her looked up from his final equipment check, "You ready to get these people pumped?"

Orryn twirled a pair of daggers in his hands and returned the grin. "Ready to kick your ass."

"Hah. I like you already."

"Well hey, what's the point of doing something like this if you're not having fun, you know?" He gripped his weapons and lowered himself into a fighting stance. "Glory is empty if it comes without satisfaction."

A fair point. Sure, some could say that Coco was in it for the adulation from her fans, but she also enjoyed giving them something to be excited for in the first place.

" _And now, let's begin with the next match in the Finals Round!_ " Port boomed, " _Ready? Begin!_ "

* * *

Vahlen wasn't a fan of lying to Bradford, but she also knew better than to put undue stress on the Central Officer's shoulders with a minor hiccup. The situation with Tygan was different because she had a professional colleague to corroborate the possibility of a problem. The quirk she saw in her CCTS scan, though? Not quite as credible. Even so, due diligence asked her to take it seriously and follow up on it. If more evidence of funny business came up after a second pass, she could be more confident when she brought it to Bradford's attention (ideally after everyone was back on Earth).

It was a small thing, a mis-match between the results of her scan and the registry provided to her by Grayson. Her scan seemed to have missed a couple of items, a hiccup that the software caught when it cross-checked the results with Grayson's data. Not that big of an issue, since she could simply run the scan again and tweak it to specifically focus on the blacked out area. Still, she sent a message to the Atlesian technician after she reviewed her results and found the issue. What troubled her more, however, was the existence of an item that popped up in her scan results that _wasn't_ on the registry. The file size was only a few bytes, and a quick scan didn't reveal anything malicious… just strange.

Through her experience analyzing Remnant software on RWBY's scrolls and at the CCTS programming architecture, Vahlen had to get used to a programming structure that didn't use ASCII code. It got easier once she figured out the standards used on Remnant, but now she was surprised to see an ASCII format pop up in this file, along with an extension that she hadn't seen anywhere else on Remnant. Vahlen had set up a quarantine zone and opened the file to see what it contained, only to be surprised once again: an array of ASCII symbols arranged in the shape of what looked like a chess piece. It looked like something a couple of script kiddies back on Earth would be inclined to make, thinking they were being cool or something equally stupid. Did Remnant have a similar programming culture that resulted in oddities like this? So her curiosity about software 'graffiti' led Vahlen to wonder if she could find a similar calling card on the Colosseum, and maybe some answers to what it could possibly mean.

With a little scroll call from Grayson at the CCTS, Vahlen was able to satisfy the on-duty technician's request for credentials and set herself up at an empty station.

"Alright, let's see what we have here…"

Searching for a single filename should take a lot less time than running a registry check, so hopefully Vahlen could be in and out of here before it was time to head back to Earth with Bradford's group. She heard the sound of a horn in the distance, which likely marked the start of the next match in the Finals. Well, she better hope her program worked quickly if she wanted to get this thing wrapped up before Bradford wanted to leave with the Councilman. She uploaded her sniffer program, defined its search parameters, and sent it hunting.

"Right, that's done. Let's see if there's anything else we can do in the meantime."

"Can I… uh… can I help you, miss…?"

Right. She wasn't alone. "Vahlen. And it's Doctor, actually."

"Oh." The tech rubbed his shoulder uncomfortably, "Err, sorry. Didn't… didn't realize…"

He couldn't have been more than twenty-five years old, which made Vahlen think of her own (embarrassingly awkward) college years. "It's quite alright. But perhaps you can help me after all. Do you mind answering a few questions for me?"

The young man looked surprised at Vahlen's query. "S-sure, I guess. What do you want to know?"

"Well, I'm running a software sweep in your system, and I'm looking for something… I guess 'curious' would be a good word for it." Vahlen said, pulling up a screenshot of the ASCII Queen on her scroll to show the kid, "Have you seen anything that looks like this?"

The tech studied the image carefully before slowly shaking his head. "No ma'am. What is it?"

"I'm not quite sure." Vahlen admitted, "I found that one in the CCTS system, so I was curious if there'd be something like that elsewhere. How often do you encounter cyber graffiti?"

"Cyber graffiti? That… I've never heard of something like that, especially in a system as classified as the CCTS. Atlas keeps a tight leash on who gets access to what when it comes to digital IP." The technician dug a card out of his pocket and handed it to Vahlen, "Heck, it took me two years before I could even be _considered_ for this position on Amity. I only let you in here because Grayson said you had clearance, and Grayson said you had clearance only because Specialist Schnee said you had clearance."

That was mildly concerning. Vahlen handed the card back to the tech (Technician Foresta, according to the printed information) with a quiet sigh. "So there's no chance that some hooligans hid this file in the CCTS library for fun?"

Foresta shook his head. "And even if they tried, they'd be caught. There are a lot of proprietary firewalls used to protect the CCTS, and only techs like Grayson know how to work around them. Like I said, Atlas takes this stuff very seriously."

Vahlen didn't remember getting flagged with any firewalls when her program first ran a few days ago. She made a note to thank Grayson for handling that the next time she saw him. Even so, that didn't change the implications of Foresta's statement. If the CCTS was truly as impenetrable from the outside as the technician claimed… could it have been an inside job. Now that… _that_ was a horrifying thought.

"Hey…" Foresta brought Vahlen out of her musings, and she noticed the kid pointing over her shoulder back at her work station, "Is it just me, or does that look like the little figure you were showing me on your scroll?"

Sure enough, the image flashing on Vahlen's screen was unmistakably a Black Queen.

* * *

Coco gritted her teeth as she handbag-blocked another swipe from her foe.

To the surprise of absolutely nobody, Orryn turned out to be a fast little rascal. Someone who had armed himself with little more than a pair of daggers didn't exactly come across as the slow-moving power-hitter type. Coco felt like she made the right decision by holding off on bringing out the big guns, because Orryn would have simply danced around the bullet barrage and kicked her face in. Still, she needed to come up with a way to give herself an advantage and create an opportunity to play to her own weapon's strength. She could hold her own on the defensive (though only just), but there's no way she'd win this without bringing down some sweet minigun justice.

"C'mon." Orryn said as he flipped over Coco's shoulder and thrust his dagger at her neck, "Thought you wanted to get these people pumped."

Coco twirled out of the way of the strike and deftly spun her handbag to deflect the followup strike. "Just giving you a chance to… show off your acrobatics." She answered, skidding backwards as she blocked a kick mid-sentence.

"Well you better do something soon." Her opponent teased, "Don't want your fans to grow bored."

To Coco's surprise, Orryn put some distance between himself and his prey. Maybe he was taking a moment to try and find a better way to take her down. Well, she hadn't come up with any ideas for seizing the upper hand, so she might as well take this opportunity. There was enough distance between them now where she had time to react if he tried to rush her, anyway. Halfway through her weapon's transformation, Coco had to suppress a yelp as she ducked under a flying dagger. She straightened out and readied her gun, wondering why Orryn would throw away one of his weapons on a telegraphed attack like tha-

She actually let out a small gasp this time as she felt the dagger slice through her flank on its way back into Orryn's waiting hand. She remained unharmed physically, but she couldn't say the same for her designer clothes. Her very expensive designer clothes.

Welp, time to waste this little fucker.

Coco's minigun revved up with a low, guttural whine. The bullets came half a second later, each barrel spitting out its payload with the venomous anger shared by its wielder. Orryn dodged, flipped, and dashed to evade the fire, but Coco noticed with some satisfaction that he couldn't get close. Her cone of fire was simply too great for him to reasonably dodge if he came within a certain distance. One or two bullets probably wouldn't do much to him, but a weapon like hers thrived on the law of large numbers. He tried his little dagger throwing trick again, and Coco had little trouble shooting it out of the air with her saturation fire.

And the crowds loved it. Over the building roar of her beloved gun, she heard the cheering of fans as she unleashed on her unfortunate foe. Orryn's acrobatic flips and twists to dodge the leaden hurricane only made the developing scene all the more impressive.

" _This is what we've all been waiting for, ladies and gentlemen!_ " Port boomed.

" _Indeed!_ " Oobleck agreed, " _Many a foe has tried to stand up against Miss Adel's terrifying power, and only a select few have lived to tell the tale! To see it in top form… truly a sight to behold._ "

The beauty of the whole situation? With her Semblance, Coco was in no danger of running out of ammunition anytime soon. The barrels would overheat long before the belt ran dry, and that could take hours.

She could literally do this all day.

* * *

A small thrill rushed through Lily's body as she considered her current situation of wandering around the Colosseum without _any_ supervision whatsoever. She wouldn't dare go back on her word to her father and run off to explore the new and exciting city of Vale, but she couldn't see any harm in taking an extra minute or two on her way to see Ruby. The sounds of combat from the arena meant she was already missing the main event anyway, so why rush when the fight would probably be over by the time she found her friends? Not to mention that Amity was pretty huge. The journey would probably take at least five minutes even if she sprinted the whole way.

So even if she couldn't go off and explore, Lily decided to do a little bit of casual people-watching as she meandered towards the section of the stadium that Pyrrha had directed her to. Lily felt pleased with herself when she came up with the idea to keep her visit a surprise from Ruby and chose to contact Pyrrha instead. The huntress was more than happy to keep Ruby out of the loop, and expressed her own personal excitement at the prospect of seeing Lily again.

The thought of seeing Pyrrha Nikos again made Lily's head feel a little fuzzy. Ruby was super-awesome (obviously) and Lily was ecstatic to hang out with her, but the rest of Ruby's friends from Strike Eight were just as awe-inspiring. Lily had the opportunity to personally watch Pyrrha train with Major Durand, but she'd also watched some combat logs of XCOM's operations thanks to her father. Nora's raw power, Blake's grace, Pyrrha's perfection… Lily would have to make a conscientious effort to not completely embarrass herself.

But first… a small candy shop caught her eye as she walked along the hallway towards her destination. Beagle had given her a little bit of Remnant cash (Lien?) when they'd first arrived on Amity so that she could buy some food, but then the whole thing happened with her father and she never got the chance to use it. Now, though? It'd be nice to surprise Ruby with a small gift of chocolate when she caught up with her friend. There was a small line at the shop, but there were so many delicious-looking options.

A five-minute detour couldn't hurt, right?

* * *

Vahlen rushed back to her work station, heart pounding, and mashed the Remnant equivalent of the escape key. To her relief, the chess piece vanished from the screen and was replaced with the live readout of the doctor's search software. That didn't bring Vahlen much comfort though, as this Black Queen thing had moved far beyond the realm of curiosity. It had somehow hijacked her terminal to post that image, and it definitely wasn't a piece of ASCII art this time.

"I recommend you pull out any and every diagnostic software in your toolkit and run them on the server." Vahlen told Foresta, "I've got a bad feeling about this."

The technician froze, his jaw barely functioning to stammer out a response. "B-but… I thought… weren't you looking for that thing?"

"Yes, but my software doesn't just automatically open up whatever it finds. Whatever this Black Queen program is, it's live." Vahlen answered tersely. She felt bad for the boy, she really did. He was clearly not prepared for the idea of something going wrong (despite that being part of his job description), but the doctor needed his help. _Now_. "The anti-virus suite, if you please."

Vahlen's firm voice finally snapped Foresta out of his funk, and he got to work at his station. On her end, Vahlen canceled her previous search query (no point in trying to find the graffiti when it had already found her) and searched through the Colosseum's digital framework for some sort of runtime summary of the active systems on Amity. She knew there had to be one, as she remembered watching Grayson use something similar during the time they worked together at the CCTS. She wanted to scan the LabView-esque program and get a bigger picture of how all the different systems on Amity worked together.

"Foresta, can I borrow you for a moment? I'm trying to find the software that displays a visual representation of all the interacting functions within the Colosseum. I saw Grayson use it back at the CCTS, and I think it might be helpful for our current issue."

The technician looked up from his work and Vahlen could see the unease written all over his face. "That's… nobody's supposed to have access to the live map except for qualified technicians. I don't think it would be a good idea."

"Do you know what else wouldn't be a good idea?" Vahlen asked, irritation slowly leaking into her voice, "Causing an international incident because we weren't able to catch this issue quickly enough _because we weren't cooperating at one-hundred percent efficiency._ "

"I… okay. Just don't spend too much time in there, okay? I could probably get fired over this." Foresta complained as he opened up the system map for Vahlen.

Vahlen rolled her eyes. "Or you could get a promotion when we avert a crisis, but let's mistake the forest for the trees, shall we?"

"Was… was that supposed to be a joke?"

No. Vahlen hadn't realized her pun until after her associate mentioned it. "Never mind. Thank you for your assistance, Foresta."

Her first glance at the map told Vahlen what she had already expected: the entirety of Amity's system was massive. The block diagram method of displaying information certainly helped Vahlen parse all the data being thrown at her all at once, but it still took her breath away for a moment when she realized just how complex this station truly was. Sure, this thing probably paled in comparison to the Temple Ship, but that didn't help Vahlen with her upcoming task of finding a needle in a digital haystack.

The sound of an automatic weapon carried through from the stadium, followed by uproarious cheering as the Chief Scientist got to work. She started with the propulsion systems, since that would cause the greatest damage if it went down. Anti-gravity output looked static for the last day, and the local registry reported no changes in at least that long. Unless this malware had burrowed into the system a long time ago and was waiting for the worst time to strike…

"Rebooting the system isn't an option, I take it?" Vahlen asked, half joking.

"Unless you want a stadium full of people to crash into Beacon when the power systems run through their startup cycles… then no." Foresta answered before gesturing behind him at the sound of the minigun. "Not to mention that those hard light shields are the only thing standing between that and the audience."

A shiver went down Vahlen's spine as she realized the truth in Foresta's words. Killing the propulsion was the obvious choice for sabotage, but shutting off those hard light shields in the middle of a pitched arena fight could be equally catastrophic panic-wise.

As if the Black Queen was reading her mind, a warning message popped up on Vahlen's screen.

 _Are you sure you want to power off arena shielding?_

Rather than waste time trying to stop the program (it had taunted and teased her up to this point, so why assume this instance would be any different?), Vahlen keyed her comm piece.

"Stop the fight _immediately_. There is a virus in the system that is trying to shut down the safety shields. _Stop the match._ "

* * *

Bradford's blood ran cold at Vahlen's words, and he felt as if time moved in slow motion as he stood up to shout. He screamed for everyone to get down, but the roar of the audience as it cheered Coco drowned him out. He saw the light shield flicker once, then twice, and could only fear the worst. Finally, Bradford's stomach dropped as he watched Orryn leap high into the air in another attempt to get an angle on his opponent, and Coco, unaware of the deadly change that took place, swept her weapon across his arc as she tried to nail her target.

As the exuberant cheering turned to terrified screams Bradford contacted Van Doorn aboard the Temple Ship.

"This is Central. We have Security Status RED. Initialize the REMCOM Project."


	17. Combat Protocol

A/N: So as you may have noticed, I made like an XCOM Rookie and lost control of the situation. It was equal parts real life getting in the way and me not being happy with the first draft for several scenes. I used to have a backlog of buffer chapters for this sort of situation back when I wrote RWBY Within, but I burned through all the ones I had for Remnant Unknown a couple of months ago. The upside is that I'm quite pleased with the end result, and I think it sets up the rest of the BoB quite nicely.

Enjoy.

* * *

Coco Adel kept the bullets flying for a solid ten seconds before she realized that something had gone wrong. The roar of her gun coupled with her focus on the frustratingly agile Orryn meant that she had very little attention to spare for the audience. Eventually, however, the screams grew loud enough where she could hear them over the hail of bullets, and that's when Coco took a moment to glance away from her opponent and towards the stands. Confusion set in when she saw people scrambling for the exits, trampling over one another in a bid to leave as fast as possible. That confusion turned to horror when she noticed that the people who weren't racing to leave the stadium were, in fact, not moving at all. Bile rose into the back her throat as she caught sight of bloody, mulched bodies frozen in unnatural positions. Some survivors tried to limp to safety while others found themselves trapped and helpless beneath the slick carcasses of the less fortunate.

This… this was bad. A small part of Coco's mind warned her that with so many people dead or dying (and the gore… even from this distance, Coco could see so much ripped flesh and viscera), the panic had already set in. And since people knew that panic was the Grimm's siren song, they were scrambling to escape this floating death trap before that happened, thereby creating even _more_ panic despite the fact that the deadly hail of dust had stopped. Coco watched as law and order crumbled all around her, a stark realization hit her like a truck.

This was her fault.

When Coco let her beloved weapon fall to the ground, Orryn glanced over his shoulder to see what had shaken his opponent.

He said nothing, but fell to his knees and painted the floor with vomit instead.

* * *

Van Doorn's response crackled over the comms almost instantly. " _Acknowledged, Central. We have two Strike Teams standing by for immediate dispatch and five others getting prepped. Give me a drop zone, and I can send in the cavalry._ "

Which drop zone? Bradford watched Jane Kelly pull the councilman to the floor while he tried to think. Charlie wouldn't need backup, since most of the huntsmen were already here. Besides, a purple portal appearing in the center of the recently-compromised arena spewing out armed operatives probably wouldn't be Remnant's best first impression of XCOM.

The Grimm hadn't arrived yet, though Bradford knew that would change in a matter of minutes. The city was probably in greater danger of being overrun than Amity, honestly. Bradford would be mindful of the Nevermores, but he needed boots on the ground to get a handle on the situation at Beacon.

"Timmons." Bradford called out to the operative manning the comm room, "What's Alpha's status?"

" _About to be overrun, sir._ " Timmons answered, " _Perimeter sensors are picking up a lot of Grimm, and they're moving fast. Most contacts are smaller, but there's a couple of big ones. A Strike Team wouldn't have much time to dig in before the mob hits._ "

"Foxtrot?"

" _Lot of friendlies and lots of movement at the fairgrounds. I'm guessing they saw the video feeds._ "

The people at the fairgrounds were in the most danger, by Bradford's estimation. Perhaps he could mitigate the negative press of deploying the hyperwave portal in plain sight by timing it so that his teams come out and immediately engage the Grimm. And as cold as it sounded, more targets for the monsters meant that Bradford's operatives could worry less about their own safety and more about taking out their targets.

"Peter, prep the ship for deployment to Foxtrot and coordinate with Timmons. I want Gunners, Infantrymen, and Assaults armed with Gauss weapons on the ground shredding those Grimm apart as soon as they break the tree line. Medics on standby to patch up any friendlies that take a hit. _No explosives_. No need create even more of a panic. Once we've established a secure foothold, we can deploy Scouts and Snipers to spearhead efforts to expand the safe zone."

" _Understood._ " Van Doorn acknowledged, " _Should I get the MECs prepped?_ "

"Prepped but not deployed. Whoever orchestrated this is probably watching the mayhem carefully. No need to play all of our aces at once. No Titan or Archangel armor for the fireteams, either. We'll roll those out on an as-needed basis. What's the status on the Odin?"

" _Out on an operation, Central. They're due back in two hours._ "

"Hopefully we won't need that kind of firepower, but I want Penny ready to go with the rest of the armor as soon she gets back with Gidjit. Beags? We need to sync up with Ozpin and Ironwood ASAP."

" _Already on it, boss. I'm headed to the General's quarters now._ "

As Bradford made preparations to mount a defense, Shen was desperately trying to get through to Ruby on his scroll.

" _Dr. Shen?_ " The huntress finally replied, " _I don't mean to be rude, but now is a really bad time-_ "

"Believe me, I know." Shen quickly answered, "I just want to make sure Lily is alright."

" _What do you mean?_ "

Ice slowly filled the Chief Engineer's veins as he heard the confusion in Ruby's voice. "I'm on Amity with Lily, and I sent her to go see you about five minutes ago. You… you have her, right?"

"… _No, Doctor. I don't._ "

* * *

Lily Shen didn't know why people were screaming and pouring into the hallway like a swarm of insects, but she knew that it meant something bad had happened in the match. She quickly pushed herself back against the candy shack to avoid getting caught and trampled in the oncoming stampede, but she knew that she couldn't stay here for very long. This sort of thing is what her father was afraid of when he hesitated to let her go to Remnant, and she knew that it wouldn't take long for things to go from bad to worse.

Was that blood on some of the people spilling out of the vomitorium? She needed to let Ruby and her friends know she was trapped out here. She pulled out her scroll and started pounding out an SOS

 _Pyrrha I need help. Im out by th-_

Lily cried out as a panicking tourist crashed into her and sent the younger Shen tumbling to the ground. The scroll fell out of her hand and clattered into the stampede. She pushed herself back against the wall away from the danger of the crowd and felt the panic slowly eat away at her. Nobody knew where she was, nobody knew where to look for her, and soon the Grimm would be the bigger problem on everyone's mind. Lily didn't know if she should just go with the flow of the crowd and wait by the docks for someone to find her or if she should just sit here and try to catch a glimpse of someone she recognized in the crowd.

The screams from the audience drowned out anything else that Lily might hear, and Lily watched in horror as the escaping civilians grew more desperate. Children and elderly alike that failed to keep up with the violent motions of the crowds were pulled underfoot, and nobody seemed to care enough to stop for a moment and pull them back to their feet. The cries of mothers screaming for their children hit a little too close to home for Lily, and the younger Shen drew her knees closer and felt her eyes glaze over as the reality of the situation slowly began to set in and stifle any semblance of hope or logic.

"Dad…"

As her mind continued to shut down, Lily felt a pair of strong arms pull her up into a standing position. She vaguely heard a confident voice say something about a safe zone as its owner helped her into the crowd and towards the outer docks. A small part of her screamed that she needed to resist and find a way back to her father. The rest of her, however, refused to break free of its shell-shocked mental stalemate. Wherever this 'safe zone' was, maybe she could find her father there.

Then she could apologize for being so careless.

* * *

Amid the backdrop of screams, a multitude of voices flowed in and out of Arslan's head.

Commanding. "Everyone, call in your weapons. Now!"

" _Please, everybody stay calm! Everything is under control!_ "

Determined. "Don't need to tell me twice, boss. Scroll's estimating that they'll be here in about a minute and a half."

"Let's hope that the Grimm take longer to get here."

Terrified. "Arslan? W-what do we do?"

" _Make your way to the docks in a safe and orderly fashion!_ "

Analytical. "If those shields are still down, then it means that we should expect fliers to come straight into the arena from above."

"Ren, get to the wounded and see if you can do anything to help."

"Right."

Concerned. "Arslan? Hey… you alright, boss?"

"Atlas security is probably trying to handle perimeter security, but I'm certain they could use some help."

"My boys and I are on it. We'll send our weapons to the docks and support the security detail however we can."

"Thanks, Sun. Penny? What's your status?"

Optimistic. "You know me, friend. I'm always combat ready!"

"Say something Arslan. You're starting to freak me out."

"Somebody needs to get down to the arena floor before the Grimm arrive and get Coco out of their. She looks pretty shaken."

Blunt. "She just massacred a crowd of people, or worse. I don't blame her."

"Hey, is Arslan alright? She's looking a little pale."

"Hang on, I've got a call from… Dr. Shen? Weiss, handle Arslan."

"Arslan. _Arslan!_ "

ABRN's team leader blinked as Weiss grabbed her shoulder. "What… what just happened…?"

"Shit just hit the fan is what happened." Weiss growled, "Grimm are going to be bearing down upon us in seconds, and we need to keep these civilians safe as they try to reach the ground. So pull yourself together and get your team coordinated."

 _You need to have the strength and resolve to command your squad when everything feels like it's falling apart around you._

Suddenly, the world snapped back into focus. "Right. Where do you need us?"

"There are a lot of people trying to escape all at once." Jaune said, his eyes locked on Coco, "They could use some help doing it safely. Your team is good at staying mobile, so try to move in and assist wherever you see an opportunity."

"Pyrrha." Ruby said, and Arslan noticed a hint of real terror in her voice, "Lily's lost somewhere in the Colosseum."

Lily? Arslan glanced at Pyrrha and saw a horrified expression splashed across her face " _Shit!_ She messaged me about coming to see you about ten minutes ago. I… I completely forgot."

"We need to mount a search and rescue. Shen isn't leaving until we've found her."

"Situation just got a whole lot worse, Ruby." Jaune interrupted, "They're here."

* * *

"Central, this is Strike Six." Captain Eduardo 'Otter' Fonseca announced as he made the jump through the relay, "We're groundside on Remnant."

"And we've got contacts. Lots of them." Leo 'Desperado' Ward called out, raising the Gauss Rifle to his shoulder and popping off an opening volley at a Beowolf charging the fairgrounds.

" _Your instructions are clear, Sixes: secure the fairgrounds and establish an FOB. Protect any civilians you encounter, and keep me appraised of the situation._ "

Fonseca raised his own rifle and dropped another Beowolf. "Understood, sir. We're going to have our hands full, I think."

" _A wise man once said 'it will take many bullets to win this war.' I suggest we use them._ "

That got a chuckle out of Desperado. "Seems fitting to quote the old Colonel at a time like this. Squad, form up on the Captain and advance."

With no Nevermore on the horizon, the operatives had little reason to take cover against the melee-restricted Grimm. Even so, XCOM's experience with the Grimm had allowed Strike teams to develop tactics and formations attuned specifically to combating the soulless monsters. The Assaults took point, Alloy Cannons at the ready to eviscerate any Grimm that got past the rain of fire. Infantrymen filled the mid-line while they surgically lit up approaching contacts. Gunners hung back as their LMGs swept across the enemy ranks to light them up with holo targetting. Fonseca and his fellow Medic stayed in the middle with the other riflemen, weapons locked and medkits at the ready when things invariably took a sour turn.

Several Atlesian soldiers glanced at the newcomers with shock before realizing they didn't have the luxury of questioning why a purple gateway dumped a team of soldiers into their fairground. The team methodically spread out along the edge of the AO in an effort to expand their foothold against the horde and maximize their overlapping fields of fire. They were holding the Grimm at bay for now, but Fonseca knew that could change in an instant.

"Who _are_ you people?" One of the Atlesian soldiers asked as he fell back to Desperado's position. "Identify yourselves immediately."

"Armed and trained soldiers here to save your ass." Ward growled, "Your boss is going to get a nice, long debriefing after this mess is cleared up, but you need to shut up, nut up, and shoot these goddamn Grimm."

The Atlas soldier didn't know how to respond to that.

Over the chattering of their weapons, piercing screams among the tents and food stalls bore into the soldiers, and Ward saw the two Atlesian guards exchanged nervous glances. What about the rest of the security detail? Surely there weren't so many Grimm that the regulars had become overwhelmed already.

"Tusks." Fonseca warned, "We're about to have some up-close-and-personal company."

Desperado swore under his breath before giving the guards a stern look. "You've got two options: stick around for this bloodbath, or make yourselves useful by helping those civilians trapped in the fairgrounds. Choose quickly."

The situation finally clicked for the guards, and they nodded at Desperado before turning and dashing off into the sea of tents. One of the guards even offered a salute, a gesture that almost made the Captain laugh. The Boarbatusk charge, however, wiped any hint of mirth from his thoughts. Both Gunners did their best to shred the armored skulls of the hogs and soften them up for the other operatives, but every second spent focusing on chargers meant a second less tearing down the multitude of Beowolves.

"Assaults." Fonseca called out.

"Weapons locked and loaded." One of the frontliners called out, and the underslung bayonet flipped into position and quickly took on a red-hot glow, "We're ready to receive."

The first Boarbatusk that reached close-quarters was instantly blasted back by a blast from Six-Five's Alloy Cannon while the second succumbed to concentrated fire from Desperado. The third, however, slipped past the withering gunfire long enough to close into melee with one of the Assaults.

"Christ, that was close!" Six-Eight cried as he rolled out of the way, blasting the Boarbatusk from the rear as he pulled himself into a kneeling position.

"Mind the flash." Fonseca warned as he chucked a grenade towards the treeline. It exploded with a burst of blinding light, disorienting the fresh Grimm so that his team could focus on the closer threats. Six-Five speared another charger and killed it with a point-blank shot from his weapon. With his attention on the squealer, a Beowolf managed to come up from behind and swipe him in the back.

"Fuck!"

Ward quickly put down the offending monster, but the damage was done. Not only was Six-Five shaken from the attack, but the squad's second Medic had to stop shooting to render aid for the injured operative.

"Hang in there, team. We've seen worse than this in Sao Paulo." Fonseca said, slapping a fresh magazine into his rifle, "Gunners, I want full-auto sweeps to suppress as many of the Grimm as possible. The rest of us will prioritize targets on a closest-to-furthest basis. Use Flash if they start to get too close."

"Ammo reserves are okay for now, but that's gonna change soon." Desperado reported over the comms, "Commander, when can we expect reinforcements?"

Van Doorn's voice came through loud and clear from the other end of dimensional space. MacAuley's comm center was a godsend. " _Getting prepped as we speak. I'm sending two Engineers with the team, and they're loaded up with ammo instead of explosives. Should keep your team stocked and happy._ "

"The extra firepower will be more than welcomed. We're barely holding against the flow of Grimm as it is. Hard to secure the fairgrounds when we're barely keeping a foothold around Foxtrot." Fonseca answered.

" _Understood, Sixes. Until Central gives the go-ahead for explosives, you're stuck dealing with the Grimm by conventional arms. Gunners will have to do for now._ "

Gunners would be just fine by Fonseca, though he wondered if Strike Six's current situation was just a prelude of things to come. With this many people fearing for their lives, how long would it take before the Grimm ran out of motivation to stop their onslaught?

And when would the bigger Grimm decide to show up?

* * *

Coco looked up and numbly acknowledged the darkened sky as a horde of Griffons poured into the arena. Not that she was surprised, what with all the carnage and havoc she'd just brought down upon the Colosseum. How could she have been so careless? She'd focused so hard on trying to shoot down Orryn that she didn't notice all of the people behind him that were now injured (or worse) because of her. It didn't matter that it all happened so quickly. She was a huntress, dammit. Trained to be the best of the best, and this is all she had to show for her efforts? The blame for the whole catastrophe rested squarely on her shoulders.

A small voice of reason in her head angrily countered that it wasn't fair to say something like that. How could she have known that the shields would fail? Should she have spent the entire match paranoid that disaster would strike at any moment? Who would possibly benefit from an attack like this? Too many faunus sat in the Colosseum for it to be a White Fang plot. Anarchists? Surely the academies would have been informed of such a threat, and Ironwood would have taken steps to put them down. And whoever was behind it, how did they manage to take the shields down? During this internal struggle, a second voice of reason tried to point out that the Griffons were getting closer.

Oh, right. The Grimm.

Coco looked down at her weapon, the culprit of the atrocities she'd just committed and the reason for the position she now found herself in, and acknowledged that picking it up would probably be a good idea. She registered the almost-muted cries of Velvet and Yatsuhashi in the background, screaming at her to get out of there. Why? She caused this mess, it only seemed right that she try to fix it. Her limbs moved like molasses as she reached for her gun. Then again, what good would it do to fight? Those people were already dead, and shooting down a few Griffons (who would probably dissipate and rematerialize elsewhere) wouldn't change that. And what if she screwed up and shot some more people instead? The first time, though horrific in magnitude, was an accident. Making a conscientious choice to pick that fucking thing back up even though she knew the risks this time around? That toed the line with murder.

And yet, 'That fucking thing' was an inseparable part of her identity. It made the feeling of betrayal all the worse: a weapon that she had learned, mastered, and loved through training and determination that had suddenly become an instrument of destruction. Did that make her an avatar of death? She was always amused with the idea of becoming a beacon of hope, meting out justified punishment against the hordes of Grimm clawing at the proverbial gates, but never had she considered the idea that her skills could just as easily take the lives of those who depended on her. Would she have to live with this burden for the rest of her life?

Even so, she still had a duty to serve and protect those very people even now. Her friends and teammates dropped into the arena to try and come to her aid, but without their weapons, what could they really do? Orryn's daggers may as well have been safety pins for all the help they would be in this fight. Whether she liked it or not, she needed to pick up that gun and stop the Grimm from doing anymore harm. Coco grabbed her gun (was she imagining things, or did it feel heavier?), turned to face the descending flock, and pulled the trigger. The roar of her gun, which once brought her enjoyment and comfort, now sounded cacophonous and unsettling. What scream or cry for help was she drowning out this time? Her aim felt shaky as she tried to track the Grimm and shoot them down in turn, with none of the usual style and flair her fans had grown to love. It would only be a matter of seconds before the Griffons reached her, and then-

Something collided into Coco with a grunt and sent her tumbling sideways. Her head smacked into the ground and caused her vision to explode into stars, but her hearing remained perfectly intact.

"Orryn!" She heard the voice standing above her shout, "Fall back! Pyrrha! Gun me!"

Still dazed from the surprise tackle, Coco looked up in time to see her minigun levitate and fly into the hands of JNPR's team leader. He swung it around to bear down upon the approaching Grimm and the wave of bullets resumed. The way he carried her gun, his knees bent and his arms relaxed, Coco would have sworn that someone with his finesse had been using heavy weapons for years. And yet, all he ever fought with in the tournament was that sword of his. Orryn knelt down on her right to try and help Coco to her feet.

"Did you know he could do that?" Orryn asked, glancing at Jaune.

Coco's gun roared in his hands, and Jaune let loose a gutteral scream to match as he shot down the Grimm with an intensity that reminded Coco of the first time her team accidentally walked in on JNPR practicing for the tournament. And yet, the rage was focused… controlled. Jaune didn't wildly swing the minigun around and aim it at anything that moved. His motions were crisp, and his targeting methodical. Rather than focus fire on one Griffon for long enough to fully destroy it, Jaune let his aim linger just long enough to wound it and draw the monster's attention before switching to another. The Griffons flew rings around the stadium, but they all seemed to only have eyes for Jaune. Of course, that's when the ammo in the drum dried up.

"Uh, Coco? How do you reload?"

"I don't." Coco groaned, "It's a semblance thing."

Before they could worry about how to solve their new problem, the answer came raining down in the form of rocket lockers. A few unlucky Griffins flew in the way of their trajectory and found themselves pinned to the floor while the huntsmen made a mad dash for their weapons. Jaune tossed Coco's gun back to her with a grin. "C'mon, let's turn this fight around."

* * *

"Jaune's skill with that firearm is… impressive." Bailey remarked as the XCOM party watched the Griffon attack from the safety of one of the stadium's arched exits. The stampede of terrified civilians still flowed past them, but the number of people still stuck inside the arena was dwindling by this point. Bradford had asked Kelly to go out into the lobby and search for Lily. While she tersely pointed out that her job was to protect the councilman, she didn't have much of an argument to stand on when Bailey himself instructed her to agree to the request. That left Bradford to look after Bailey, Tygan, and a devastated Dr. Shen while pandemonium erupted all around them.

"If you'd seen him a few months ago, you'd be singing a different tune." Bradford commented wryly before the rocket lockers started dropping into the stadium's center. "Good, it looks like the situation here should be under control soon. One moment, Councilman."

Bradford keyed his comm to the channel reserved for officers. "Beags, tell me you've found Ironwood."

" _About a minute ago. We're on our way to the security lockers so I can get the gear back that you had to give up on the docks._ " Beagle reported.

"Excellent. We'll meet you in the arena with Captain Rose."

" _Understood._ "

The screams of terror in Amity, which had died down over the last few minutes as people evacuated to the docks, renewed itself with a sudden and drastic increase in volume. Bradford let out a reflexive groan. What now?

Captain Beagle supplied the answer. " _Uhhh, sir? Grimm don't know how to pilot Bullheads, right?_ "

" _My comm link must be broken._ " Fonseca said over the channel, " _Unless the Curse of Beagle carries over between worlds._ "

" _Fuck you too, Otterman._ "

"Spit it out, Beags." Bradford cut in. As famous as his operatives were for their black humor, the Central Officer didn't have much patience for it right now.

" _It's just like it sounds, boss. Bullheads are flying up to the outer walkways and docks, dropping off a package of wolves and bears, and getting the hell out of dodge. Ironwood is absolutely livid._ "

"One thing at a time, Beagle. Get us those weapons." Bradford said, pinching the bridge of his nose in frustration before turning to Bailey. "This… isn't how I envisioned your first visit to Remnant, Councilman. We need to get you out of here."

"We need to help those in need." Bailey countered, "These people, the friends and families of those who… sacrificed much for our world, the kingdoms that you have worked so hard to build alliances with… what sort of… message would it send if a man who comes representing Earth's Council of Nations prioritizes his personal safety over their… extinction?"

Bradford kept an eye on the fight unfolding in the arena as he argued with the Councilman. "I appreciate the sentiment, sir, but with respect, I need you to come out of this alive. You have seen the existence of another world with your own two eyes, and you understand the importance of what's at stake here. If you die here and now, diplomacy with the Council on this matter is going to be nigh impossible. That is not an option I am willing to entertain." Bradford turned to his Chief Engineer, "That means you too, Shen. I can't afford to lose you in the upcoming firefight."

Dr. Shen looked at Bradford, and for the first time since the Central Officer had known him, fiery rage and determination burned in the aging engineer's eyes. "If you think I'm leaving without my daughter, you are _fucking mistaken_ , my friend."

"I agree." Tygan added, with a glance at Dr. Shen, "Though in slightly less… colorful terms."

"If I must go, Bradford, I… implore you to let my staff remain. You have already heard the… conviction straight from Dr. Tygan's mouth, and I can assure you that Kelly will be no different." Bailey locked eyes with Tygan, who responded with an affirmative nod. Bradford sighed.

"Very well. But we are getting you out of here as soon as possible." Bradford keyed his mic, "Pete, you dropped off Strike Seven at Foxtrot yet?"

" _About a minute ago, sir. I've got two more teams on standby ready to move on your order._ "

"Redeploy to drop zone Charlie. I've got a package to deliver, and then I need a squad that's a mix of recon and anti-air. Additionally, get a team prepped for an Icarus drop. Don't need it yet, but it's nice to keep my options open."

" _Understood, sir. I believe Major Durand is heading that initiative, though._ "

"Then it's a good thing she trained replacement pilots for the Temple Ship. We could use her skills in this mess, anyway."

With no other options, the small party continued watching the huntsmen tear through the Griffons in the arena. Bradford took a little comfort in the fact that Bailey could now see huntsmen fighting in their natural habitat: against the forces of Grimm. Ruby and Jaune coordinated the efforts of their teammates (though Blake and Yang were noticeably absent), as well as those of CFVY and ABRN, while the various huntsmen and huntresses worked to safely evacuate the remaining civilians and contain the aerial assault. Bradford had never seen this variant of Grimm back on Earth, and they looked to him like a more mass-produced, footsoldiery alternative to the Nevermore. He didn't doubt that those razor-winged bastards would be making an appearance at some point, but was thankful for the delay.

Bradford could see why Ruby took a liking to the students of ABRN. Their leader (Arslan?) worked quickly and efficiently to protect the panicked tourists. He had no idea how she managed to use a small wire as a grappling hook, but it allowed her to quickly move around in the stands if one of the Grimm got too close to one of her charges. Her hoverboarder provided an impressive defensive screen against the fliers while the two men of the team provided ground-based support.

As the battle began to wind down, Beagle appeared in the entryway with Kelly (and her shotgun) at his side. "Here, boss." He handed Bradford his Gauss sidearm before running a last check on his own rifle.

"Ironwood couldn't join us. Had other issues to attend to, as I'm sure you can imagine." The Captain added.

Bradford answered with a dry, mirthless laugh. "I don't blame him. Come on, we need to take advantage of this lull in the fight and head down to the center of the arena to connect with Captain Rose. We're also dropping off the good Councilman so he can safely report back to Earth and help us stay on good terms with the Council."

"I'd rather stay here in a… show of solidarity with our new friends, but I understand the tactical importance of your decision, Bradford." Bailey conceded.

Bradford's party made its way towards the center of Amity as the Central Officer brought the two soldiers up to speed on the new plan. Halfway down to the bottom floor, a wire-slinging Arslan landed in front of Kelly to halt their advance. "This is a combat zone. You should head to the docks with the rest-" The huntress's eyes widened when she caught sight of the insignia on Bradford's chest, "You're… you're with them. With _her_."

Beagle casually waved his rifle. "Yeah, and we're armed, kiddo. C'mon, let's move."

Arslan nodded and followed the group down to the center, and Bradford noticed that she kept stealing glances at his uniform. One of the fliers strayed too close when the team nearly reached the bottom, prompting Beagle and Kelly to shoot it out of the sky. At the sound of Gauss weaponry, Ruby whipped her head around and beamed at the Central Officer.

"Bradford!" She greeted, rushing over and stopping in front of her friend with a sharp salute, "I'm so glad you're here, though I wish it were under better circumstances."

"You and me both. I don't believe you've met the Councilman." Bradford said with a chuckle.

"Oh!" Ruby bowed at the VIP on Bradford's left, "It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance, mister Councilman, sir."

Bailey dipped his head in response. "Just Bailey is perfectly acceptable, Captain. I owe you a… thank you on behalf of the people of Earth, though it appears that will have to wait for another time."

"He's on his way out." Bradford explained, "And I'm bringing more operatives after he's through."

Ruby sighed. "We can definitely use the help. These are just the faster Grimm that managed to get here first. It won't be long before the bigger ones show up to join them. First thing's first, though. _HEY!_ "

The group of huntsmen in the center of the arena looked over at the sound of Ruby's yell. With their attention momentarily on her, Ruby continued. "I need you all to clear out for a moment. Captain of the Valean Recon Division needs some space in the middle."

The students returned their focus on the Grimm, gradually moving towards the edges of the arena per Ruby's request.

"They're in for a weird light show." Beagle muttered before keying his comm, "Alright Pete, VIP is ready for extraction. Light 'er up."

A second later, and a purple vortex of energy warped into existence with a low thrum. While Ruby, Weiss, and JNPR continued to attack the fliers, the other huntsmen couldn't help but focus on the alien spectacle with wide-eyed amazement. Bailey turned to Bradford and held out his hand. "It pains me to leave you here and now, Bradford. Know that the Council values your… continued efforts to fight on humanity's behalf."

Bradford accepted the handshake. "It's who I am, Councilman. I don't think I'll ever want to stop."

"We'll be… in touch, Central." And his final words, Bailey disappeared through the portal.

" _Package received._ " Van Doorn reported, " _Recon team is headed your way, sir._ "

Even as the audio of Van Doorn's message still played over the comms, eight fresh operatives poured out of the relay.

"Strike Ten reporting, sir." The lead marksman greeted with a salute, "The Field Commander pulled us from several teams, since you said you wanted recon and flier-killers."

"We're expecting bigger company." Bradford explained with a gesture to the last couple of Grimm still flying around the arena. "There's a lot of civilians on board, and we need to keep them safe."

"Understood, sir. Tell us where you need us, and we'll get this hunting trip rolling."

"Okay, hold on," Coco interrupted, "So a portal swallows up one guy and throws out eight more, and we're going to act like it's business as usual?" She pulled her glasses down to look straight at Bradford, "Who _are_ you guys?"

Jaune came up behind Coco and nudged her in the ribs. "It's… kind of a long story. I'm sure Bradford will be happy to tell you about it when we're done dealing with this mess."

"Lieutenant Arc is right." Bradford agreed, "There's a lot of change coming to Remnant in the near future, and hopefully for the better. Suffice to say that we're on your side in this battle, Miss Adel. One hundred percent."

"Lieutenant…?" Coco sighed and shook her head, "Okay yeah, the story can wait. But it _will_ happen at some point. Murder monsters first, mysterious portals later."

Yatsuhashi hefted his sword. "The enemy of my enemy is my friend. Let's drive these monsters out."

"Okay seriously, what is the deal with Earth and Remnant sharing all these idioms?" Beagle muttered.

Bradford rolled his eyes. "Worry about it later, Beags. We have a Colosseum to retake."

He keyed his comm to check in with Vahlen. His Chief Scientist had been strangely quiet ever since her warning that marked the start of this chaos, and Bradford wanted to find out why.

* * *

"Oz."

Ozpin sat in his office, staring at the screen projected by his desk, and watched as the battles unfolded both in the air and on the ground. He wasn't being idle, however. The view from the top of his emerald tower allowed him to try and coordinate efforts by Valean security and local huntsmen to repel the Grimm onslaught. The defenses were sporadic and unprepared, however, and Ozpin knew that the survival of Vale was up to Ironwood's military… and XCOM.

The headmaster looked up from his musings to see the concerned faces of his two most trusted allies, Goodwitch and Branwen.

"You know what I've always told you, Qrow…" Ozpin said, voice barely above a whisper as the chaos unfolded on his screen.

Qrow sighed. "'We can't cause a panic.' Oz, I've never… this is bad. The worst I've ever seen."

"That's because, for all the spying and scouting you've done for me, this is the first time _she_ has made a real move in your lifetime." Ozpin answered, making several keystrokes on his desk as he spoke.

Qrow raised an eyebrow. "… I'll overlook your ominous-as-shit choice of words there and go straight for the important stuff: what do we do now?"

"What we should do." Ozpin answered, his voice unnervingly calm, "Protect our citizens, fend off the Grimm, and keep Amber safe."

"Agreed." Glynda said.

Qrow pulled out his flask, looked at it, and shoved it into his pocket with a slight grimace.. "So where do you want the two of us, specifically?"

"The fairgrounds, I think. Our friend from Earth seems to be coordinating a response to the attack on the Colosseum while Ironwood struggles to keep his troops organized, so I think it is best if we secured the fairgrounds with XCOM's ground team."

"'We?'" Glynda asked. "Does that mean you're coming?"

Ozpin shook his head. "No, my friend. As I said, someone needs to stay here and keep an eye on Amber. Now go."

His two subordinates turned and left the room while Ozpin made some final arrangements on his computing station before powering it down and following after them. It was obvious that Amber was her target, but why make a play this big? With this, there was no turning back, no more manipulation from the shadows. Why shift the board so drastically just for a single maiden?

Well, Ozpin had no intention of letting his adversary promote one of her pawns into a queen. He stepped into the open elevator and swiped his scroll over a small, unassuming scanner.

"What are you planning, my friend?"

* * *

" _Talk to me, Doctor._ "

Vahlen frantically battled with her terminal, trying to find something, anything that could give her an advantage against this digital foe.

"The intrusion hasn't taken any other systems offline, I don't think, but it keeps blocking my efforts to access anything beyond a broad overview of Amity's functions. Whoever wrote this Queen Virus is very skilled."

" _Queen Virus?_ "

"The program uses a graphic of the chess piece as its calling card." Vahlen explained, "I saw it for the first time when I scanned the CCTS, and now it's popping up every time I get denied trying to navigate Amity's system."

"It's… making my work difficult too, by the way." Foresta called out from across the room, "Like, it's managed to shut down three of my four virus sweeps. Wait…" He groaned, "Make that four."

Vahlen groaned. "I thought Atlas was on the cutting edge of technology. Who could possibly be knowledgeable enough to outmaneuver your software?"

"I… uh… can't think of anyone."

" _Keep trying, Doctor. At the very least, you can give us a warning if more problems arise._ "

"Of course, Bradford."

Vahlen returned her focus to the console. What could she even do at this point, honestly? Her experience with Remnant programming was almost entirely restricted to the scroll's software, and while some of that carried over to Amity's functions and navigation, Vahlen still felt woefully unprepared for dealing with the crisis at hand. Still, the last twenty minutes of trying to wrangle with the Colosseum's digital framework did provide the doctor with some useful experience in terms of navigational shortcuts and program behavior. So while the virus continued to stymie her at every turn, Vahlen had become a little more adept at quickly searching for another entry point.

"Hey… ummm…"

The uncertain sound of Foresta's voice caused Vahlen to look up at the young technician as he slowly voiced his fears. "Do you think we're gonna be… you know… okay?"

Foresta's tone gave Vahlen pause. Despite living in a world overrun by Grimm, it seemed like Atlas's security meant he'd never dealt with a situation as dire as this before. Vahlen remembered the first time the Anthill came under attack during the war, and she remembered how terrified she felt when the war suddenly became a lot more personal than she'd been accustomed to.

"We will." She assured her associate, "But only if we work to make that happen. Is there another way we can try to regain control of the stadium? A physical mainframe perhaps?"

"There is a mainframe, of course. But… like I said, a full system reboot would be catastrophic. Even if the arena fight is over, we'd… we'd still lose power to the propulsion systems, and Amity will fall long before the power cycles back on again."

"What about performing select shutdowns?" Vahlen asked, "Can we leave propulsion alone while rebooting the others?"

She had no idea if it would help, but at least it was something they could try. The look on Foresta's face seemed to indicate that he agreed. "I'll… I'll do it. I can go down there and see if there's something that will help us. We can use the intercom to stay in touch while you keep trying to get through up here."

Vahlen smiled. "Thank you Foresta. Your supervisor would be proud of your commitment to work under pressure.

"You don't know my supervisor." The technician grumbled as he left the room.

Back to banging her metaphorical head against a virus-shaped wall. Well, it looked like she had the room to herself now. At least Vahlen could scream in frustration and not have to worry about eliciting a response of concerned looks. As she continued to navigate through the files, processes, and systems, something caught the doctor's eye. Vahlen was certain she'd pathed through this section of the digital architecture before, and yet she was likewise certain that she hadn't seen this particular folder before.

After all, a folder with the name "Main" would be pretty hard to miss.

Well, no harm in trying. She punched in the access command and expected to see _Access Denied_ in response. Instead, however, her screen filled up with a sea of new files and executables as she somehow found her way into an entirely new section of Amity's systems.

"These look important." Vahlen mused as she tabbed through the filenames. Communications… Docking… Propulsion… Protocol… Somehow, she'd gained access to what looked like the driver programs for all of the Colosseum's functions. Even minor functions like Lighting and Vending showed up. Vahlen's heart skipped a beat when she caught sight of one of the drivers near the bottom of the list.

Xcom.

* * *

All Sun could think about as he navigated the outer ring of the Colosseum was how much of a logistical nightmare it would be getting all these people safely onto the ground. Everyone panicking and trying to make their way to the outer docks, and then realizing that the passengers far outnumbered the seats to safety. The shrieks of the Griffons as they poured into the stadium and flew laps around its perimeter certainly didn't help, either. The Atlas guards and their Knights fought valiantly to keep the fliers away from the civilians, and it worked, for a time.

Then, Bullheads appeared and dropped off Beowolves, Ursa, and Creeps onto the Colosseum's walkways.

SSSN's armaments arrived before the dropships did, thankfully, but the presence of a new and immediate threat only caused the stampede of civilians to worsen. Sun's team had to be very careful with how they engaged the monsters because of all the people. Ranged attacks were totally out of the question, and even melee required constant awareness of innocent bystanders unlucky enough to get trapped by the wall of terrified people.

Ruby's training sessions paid off in spades, however. Sage and Scarlet focused on the larger Ursan threats using the former's raw strength to lock down the Grimm while the latter's high mobility allowed him to rapidly reposition and strike at the creature's exposed flank. More than once, Scarlet used his partner's large blade as a springboard to leap over the panicking crowds and attack another target before it could cause anyone serious harm. Sage followed shortly thereafter with a mighty leap and would crash down onto the unsuspecting Grimm while Scarlet had it distracted.

Sun and Neptune enjoyed similar success on their end as they focused on the smaller (but equally dangerous) targets. Sun's agility allowed him to lash out at multiple targets to keep their attention on him and off of the crowds, and he used his semblance (very sparingly) to throw out an astral projection when one Sun absolutely wasn't enough. Neptune stuck close to his partner, following up with a thrust of his trident whenever Sun leapt out of the way to attack another Beowolf. Whenever a group of Grimm tried to use superior numbers to gang up on them, Neptune swung his Guandao in a wide sweep to keep them at bay while he worked with Sun to take down their current target.

"Reaaaally wish those jackasses would stop dumping more Grimm on us." Neptune complained as the third airdrop flew by and unloaded another sortie of Creeps and Boarbatusks.

"Yeah, what's up with that?" Sun asked as he cracked the skull of a Beowolf, "Who would possibly be teaming up with the freaking Grimm?"

"Hell if I know. But we gotta keep these guys distracted long enough for the civilians to evacuate."

The plan was working, for the most part. Casualties couldn't be avoided, but the huntsmen and Atlas soldiers managed to hold the majority of the hostile attention. Still, blood splatters slowly started to grow along the floor and walls as more and more people poured out towards the docks. Despite their best efforts to keep everyone safe and reign in the panic, the crowds seemed to only be capable of focusing on the negatives of the situation instead of the positives. The constant fighting started to take its toll on the defenders, as well. Injured security personnel was forced to fall back while Sun noticed his team's aura reserves slowly dipping when he checked his scroll.

Scarlet and Sage found a moment to rejoin their teammates, and the former expressed the concern on all of their minds."This isn't looking so good anymore. The baddies keep coming, and there's still the Griffons on the perimeter to worry about. What do we do?"

"Whatever we can." Sun said, his voice determined, "Even if it's not enough, it's better than nothing."

"Help! Oh dust…. HELP!"

The boys turned around in time to see an Alpha Beowolf swipe a man clear off his feet and send him crashing into a group of terrified bystanders trying to escape the monster.

"Where did that come from?!"

"No time to worry about that, we have to take it down!"

"N-Nevermores!" Cried someone in the crowd, " _Nevermores!_ "

"Where is security? Somebody help us!"

Sage looked around as panic washed through the crowd once again. Was this really the sort of thing Ruby and her friends had to deal with for three weeks? "This just keeps getting worse…"

A loud crack rang out from down the hall, and the Beowolf staggered forward clutching its head. Before it could regain its composure, another shot cleanly tore through the beast's skull. The screaming quieted down for a moment as people stood awestruck, wondering who had taken down the Beowolf.

" _CLEAR THE PATH. SECURITY COMING THROUGH._ "

A team of four soldiers dressed in foreign combat gear dashed down the hall. Several of them carried impressive-looking long rifles, and Sun guessed they were the ones responsible for taking down the Alpha. The others had large tubes strapped to their backs, which Sun didn't recognize as any weapon he'd seen before. The civilians must have felt the air of authority in the barked order, as they pressed against each other in an effort to make a path down the hallway and towards the docks. Sun caught the eyes of the rest of his team, and they silently agreed to fall in with the newcomers as they jogged past.

"No idea who you guys are, but we're not complaining." Sun said, "We've been trying to hold off the Grimm attacks while the people evacuate the Colosseum."

"Sergeant Farouk with XCOM's Strike Ten." The nearest soldier answered with a glance at Sun and his team, "You guys are huntsmen, right?"

Sun nodded. "We've managed to keep the situation on this side of the Colosseum under control for now, but it was starting to get out of hand when you showed up." Then, almost as an afterthought, "Who's XCOM?"

Another wave of Bullheads flew up and discharged their monstrous cargo. Sergeant Farouk grunted. "Later. _EVERYBODY DOWN_."

The tournament-goers didn't need to be told twice. Enough of the civilians had made it off of Amity by this point to where the remaining people had enough room to quickly drop to the floor and allow a clear firing lane for the newcomers. The marksmen targeted the Ursai standing heads and shoulders above their smoky brethren while the rest of the soldiers knelt down and fired at a slight upwards angle into the main body of Grimm. Even with civilians within closer reach, the monsters prioritized those who were actively putting holes in them. Whatever bullets those soldiers had seemed to work way better against the Grimm than the dust rounds Sun knew, but there were more targets than could be cut down at range.

"Alright, team, let's keep the Grimm at bay so Strike Ten can stay focused on the bigger threats." Sun ordered.

"Rocketeers," One of the XCOM marksmen added, "Set up on the perimeter and be ready to shoot down any Nevermore contacts that get close. These Griffons can be taken out with small arms fire, but those ravens are whole other ballgame."

"That's my cue." Farouk said to Sun, putting away his rifle and pulling the tube off his back. "Time for me to go duck hunting."

Rocketeers. Huh. Those tubes suddenly made a lot more sense. The two operatives carrying launchers fell back from the hallway firefight and moved towards the archways that opened up into the evening sky. Griffons circled the Colosseum, but the Atlas soldiers (what was left of them, anyway) managed to keep the lesser fliers at bay with their rifles. As he surged forward to keep the Beowolves and Creeps off of the marksmen, Sun watched the Rocketeers take up positions and steady their weapons as they kept watch for the Griffon's larger brother. Some of the civilians had spotted the Nevermores earlier, and so Sun knew they were out there.

With a loud hiss, Farouk fired his payload and Sun watched it streak into the sky and explode amid the cloud of Grimm. The pained shriek of a Nevermore pierced the air, followed by a low chuckle from the Rocketeer.

"Heh… did you see that?"

* * *

" _West squad has linked up with SSSN and is pushing back the Grimm._ "

" _South squad reporting in. We've reached the professors and are mounting a counteroffensive against the hostiles._ "

" _East squad, here with CFVY. Situation is pretty well in hand._ "

" _North squad. ABRN's doing a damn fine job keeping those critters off us while we go big game hunting_. _Reese is sending some wounded your way._ "

"Well done, Strike Ten." Bradford said as he watched JNPR set up a triage station off to one side of the arena floor. Blake and Yang, Bradford found out, had been dispatched to search for Lily, while Ruby and Weiss positioned themselves on the top of the stadium perimeter to provide a supporting view of XCOM's efforts to retake the Colosseum and jump in if one of the combat zones started to grow too hot. Tygan had left with Beagle and Kelly to find Vahlen and provide technical assistance while Shen stayed with Bradford. The Central Officer sighed as his friend gave him another pleading look.

"All teams, any sign of Lily?"

" _Still nothing, sir. There's still a lot of people around, and the Grimm are making it difficult to mount a serious search effort._ "

" _We haven't found any sign of her either._ " Blake reported.

"There shouldn't be a need for a search party." Shen said, his voice quiet and shaky, "She can recognize the sound of Gauss fire and should have sought out our operatives, not the other way around."

"She's a smart kid, Shen. We'll find her." Bradford said, trying his best to comfort his broken friend.

The issue with Lily aside, a feeling of hope and confidence began to grow within Bradford. This whole thing went to hell in a handbasket real fast, but his operatives had pulled through in a big way. The ground teams reported that they had secured a small safe zone within the fairgrounds, though the fighting was fierce against the hordes. Though the Grimm showed no sign of slowing down their assault, several huntsmen had joined their fight and offered his operatives enough breathing room to secure a solid foothold. Here in the sky, the students had little trouble taking to the combined leadership of Bradford, Ruby, and Jaune to turn things around on Amity and keep the civilians safe while transports arrived to bring them safely to the ground.

He soon remembered why too confidence was a terrible idea in his line of work. Just as he thought the tides had turned, a thunderous explosion rocked the sky.

" _RWBY, report._ "

" _Uhhh, maybe I'm misunderstanding how Atlas's military structure works,_ " Yang said, " _But it looks like one of the General's cruisers opened fire on another one._ "

" _That's not normal, and you know it._ " Weiss defended hotly.

A second, larger explosion caused the Colosseum to shudder. " _Well, the second one just collided with the third after it got hit._ " Ruby said, " _Whether this is normal or not, our air power against the Nevermore just took a heavy hit._ "

The Colosseum shuddered for a third time. "Another explosion, I assume?" Bradford asked.

" _Nein._ " Vahlen answered, " _That one was the worm. It's trying to shut down the Colosseum's propulsive systems._ "

Bradford swore. "What's stopping it?"

" _An Atlesian technician who's been helping me._ " Vahlen explained, " _He's down with the physical hardware trying to lock down the virus. While that seems to be an impossible task, he is succeeding in slowing down its work. But we won't be able to hold it off forever. The civilians need to get off this station immediately, Bradford._ "

"As do we…" The Central Officer agreed.

" _One more thing._ " Vahlen said, the uncertainty in her voice evident even through the comms, " _I found a repository of files within Amity's database. One of them… one of them was named Xcom. I'm not sure how, but I think we've been compromised._ "

Of course, because why wouldn't the situation get worse? The Central Officer keyed his mic to the Temple Ship's frequency, "Van Doorn, I think it's time to deploy the first Icarus team."

" _Understood, Central. Would you like flight support as well?_ "

"Vahlen, have the Albatross suits been tested?"

" _Yes, sir. They're not perfect, but our pilots have had several opportunities to test them already._ "

"Then flight support is more than welcome, Pete. Get to drop point Beta and let's turn this clusterfuck around."

" _Language, Central._ " Van Doorn chided with a laugh, " _We're moving to Beta now, sir._ "

It seemed as though the longer this battle wore on, the worse things got. If the ground literally opened up and swallowed Beacon in the next twenty minutes, Bradford couldn't honestly say he'd be surprised. Still, he needed to take this one step at a time, the same as he always did. No matter the odds, his operatives always managed to pull through for him, and he needed to believe they'd do it again now.

"That's XCOM." He sighed.


	18. To Serve Mankind

A/N: I've got some bad news that is (hopefully!) good news in disguise. My original plan was to take a small break from writing after the conclusion of BoB to focus on planning and gaming. Given the... glacial pace that BoB is moving at, I'm going to be taking the suggestion of my editor and put my regular writing schedule on hold while I finish the rest of this setpiece. Additionally, I'm adjusting my approach to BoB's narrative. Rather than have a bunch of mini-scenes that try to cover as many perspectives as possible, I'll be focusing on two or three perspectives per chapter that focus on a particular aspect of the battle (Bradford, Vahlen, and Ruby for a chapter on Amity, as an example). Once I've finished writing and editing the rest of BoB, I'll resume posting them on here. I'll still try to keep up with people by PM (though given the fact that the number of unread PMs in my inbox is now in the double-digits, it looks like I'm not doing a terribly good job of it at the moment), since I really do enjoy talking with you wonderful people about whatever's on your mind.

AND WHILE I HAVE YOU HERE. There was a slight hiccup in the last chapter that has since been fixed. While I knew that ffnet has a thing against URLs in uploaded content and removes them, I didn't realize that it assumes anything that has the format of X.Y is a URL. So while I thought I was being clever by adding Atlas-flavored file extensions to the data that Vahlen was browsing through, none of it actually showed up when the damn chapter got posted, and it took me about a week to notice the problem. So... yeah. That was mildly frustrating.

Anyway, onto this chapter.

* * *

"Gear check."

MacAuley fumbled through the motions with shaky hands. He wasn't scared (or so he told himself), but this assault on Vale raised the stakes a hell of a lot higher than the random Grimm incursion on Earth. Sabotage? Mass panic? Grimm horde? For the first time since the assault on the Temple Ship, shit just got incredibly real. Moreover, the fact that he'd been helping Van Doorn organize XCOM's response meant that he got to hear every detail about just how _fucked_ things were becoming down on Remnant. Still… there had been no hesitation in his heart whatsoever the moment Bradford issued the order to mobilize the Icarus Squad.

Weapon… check. Ammo packs… check. Comms… check. Dust supply… check. Arc Thrower… check. Medikit… check. He knew he probably wouldn't need the medikit, what with all the Medics already deployed to the AO, but it never hurt anyone to have a contingency plan. Besides, the Engineers were supposed to be the pack rats for this op. The more gadgets he brought along, the easier it would be to MacGuyver a solution for whatever problem the boss man threw at him.

Oh, and a special gift for Jaune, since his dumb ass left his Plasma Dragon back on the Temple Ship like an idiot… check.

"Okay, listen up." At the front of the first squad's formation stood Annette in all her confident glory. With her sword strapped to her back, her arms folded across her chest, and a deadly look in her eye, MacAuley almost felt bad for the Grimm unfortunate enough to get in her way. Once she had everyone's attention, the Major continued. "Standard flight formation once we hit the other side. Assaults on point, Gunners on the flanks and Infantrymen down below. Engineers and Rocketeers stay in the center. Our first job is to disrupt the flier blockade and make contact with the teams on Amity. We'll have a pretty good jump point from there to tackle whatever hot spot Central considers the highest priority, and the Albatross pilots can assist with with the evacuation and redeployment efforts of our operatives. We've never encountered these 'Griffons' before. They're smaller than the Nevermores, which means they'll be more agile. Stay together, but be ready to take evasive action if one of those feathery assholes gets too close.

"We've got a target-rich environment," Annette continued, "But it's also loaded with friendlies and collateral. Since we're coming in from above, any missed shot runs a very high risk of hitting an ally or non-combatant. Check your fire, and only take the shot if you know you can hit the target."

One of the squad members apparently felt like flirting with death. "But what about Bradford's Law, ma'am?"

"Doesn't fucking apply here, soldier." Annette answered curtly. "Friendly fire is not an option."

The Major's lack of a joking mood quickly cleared up any confusion about the severity o f the situation.

"Hyperwave Relay will be live in twenty, Major." The gate technician reported. Annette nodded and turned back to Icarus Squad.

"I won't lie to you, this shit sounds worse than any Grimm incursion we've dealt with so far." MacAuley noticed a gleam in Annette's eye that he knew all too well. "But we're XCOM. While the Grimm are the bogeyman keeping the good little Remnant boys and girls awake at night, we're the motherfuckers that give those soulless bastards nightmares."

"Five seconds, Major."

Annette grabbed the sword off her back and form-shifted it into a shotgun. "Saddle up, boys and girls. Let's kick some ass."

The gate powered on with its usual hum, and the overhead deployment light switched from red to green. Annette disappeared through the gate a moment later, and the rest of the squad followed in short order. MacAuley let out a sigh, secured his oxygen mask, and started to run when the time came for him to make the jump. Even after all the Hyperwave crossings he'd made with Strike Five, the Irishman still hated the split second it took to travel between worlds.

Before he knew it, MacAuley felt the bitter evening air whip past him as he fell in with the rest of Icarus Squad. The extreme height of Drop Point Beta allowed Annette's team to assess the battlefield and engage from the angle of their choosing. Except, no angle looked good from MacAuley's perspective. Through a cloud of Grimm, he saw muzzle flashes, tracer rounds, and explosions light up the darkness. The smoldering wreckages of Atlesian airships lay among the streets below while smaller transports flew in all directions trying to get civilians to safety or to combat the rogue cruiser that Strike Ten had reported. The Griffons circled the Colosseum like a swarm of angry bees. MacAuley saw the Nevermores behind them, attacking airships and performing strafing runs on ground targets.

" _Central, this is Icarus Squad._ " Annette reported over the comms, " _We're topside, sir, but it's going to be difficult breaking through the Grimm cloud without going weapons free. Even then, expect casualties._ "

" _Understood, Icarus. I may have a solution for the Grimm problem, but it's going to be a small window of opportunity. Try to engage at range while we prep. Safely, of course._ "

Annette twisted around to face the rest of her squad as the sword in her hands shifted into a shotgun.

" _You heard the man, squad. Hunting season is officially open._ "

* * *

Lily looked out the window of the transport ship at all the chaos and carnage unfolding both above and below. She managed to regain some semblance of control over her mental faculties once the cabin door closed and muted the sounds of panic and terror on the docks. While she never found out who her mysterious savior was, at least Lily had a chance to think now.

There was a safe zone on the ground. There had to be, or else why would the authorities be evacuating everyone off of the Colosseum? And if there was a safe zone, XCOM would be there. She knew that Bradford would be deploying his operatives to help with this crisis, and shoring up the safe zone's defenses with the locals would almost certainly be priority number one. All she had to do was get to the safe zone and find someone who would recognize her (pretty much anyone from XCOM… being the daughter of the Chief Engineer had its perks). Then she could ride this nightmare out, find her dad afterwards, and never doubt his wisdom ever again.

A shudder reverberating through the cabin brought Lily out of her thoughts. She looked out the window, and saw that the source of the explosion was another Atlesian fighter. It looked like something caused enough damage to the engine to blow it out, and now the ship was in a tailspin. It took her another second to process that the death spiral put the ship on the same trajectory as her civilian transport. The transport pilot must have figured out the same thing, because Lily felt the world roll sideways as the transport pulled into a hard bank. With the fighter no longer in view, the only thing Lily could do was brace and hope that the two airships would miss each other.

 _CLANG._

Stars exploded into Lily's field of vision as the transport ship jerked and slammed her head against the window. The pilot barked something over the intercom, the other passengers screamed, and warning lights flashed throughout the cabin. Lily felt herself pulling in random directions against the seat belt while unsecured items flew every which way over her head. It didn't take a genius to realize that the ship had lost control of its course. With her head pounding, Lily struggled to regain focus and assess the situation. She wasn't dead yet, and that had to count for something.

Okay, so the ship wasn't spinning _that_ wildly out of control, since the ground seemed to be staying in the lower half of her field of vision. The pilot must have corrected the roll, and so all that remained was the yaw. Unfortunately, the rate at which the surface rose up to meet the ship told Lily that the pilot wouldn't have much time to correct said yaw. She needed to protect herself from the crash. Now. A quick glanced around her personal space didn't reveal a whole lot of options, so it looked like all she could do was what flight attendants always instructed during those boring pre-flight checks. The seat in front of her looked close enough to brace against, so Lily tucked her feet back, ducked her head, and pressed her arms firmly against the headrest. The ship continued to spin, and Lily counted down the seconds to keep herself focused on the the danger instead of the panic.

With the sound of screeching metal, the ship slammed into the ground and flipped end over end. A small wave of surprise and pride washed through the back of Lily's mind as she noted that her safety preparations were working. Her bones ached with each flip of the cabin, but she remained firmly in place. With any luck she might be able to get out of this with only a few bumps and scrapes.

The ship slammed to an unexpected halt, causing Lily's head to smash into the wall once more, and darkness overtook her.

* * *

"Holy shit! Did you see that, sir?"

Otter looked up from his civilian patient and nodded at Desperado. After the damaged fighter clipped the transport ship and sent it spinning, The Captain watched its entire, horrifying descent to the ground. Part of him felt relieved that it didn't crash into the fair grounds and risk killing even more civilians, but anyone who may have survived the crash was facing an unenviable journey through Grimm territory. Did he risk sending a small recon team to go search for survivors? As it stood, his own Strike team could barely keep the safe zone secure. The Atlesian security had been sending civilians (wounded or otherwise) back to their position, and it was becoming a struggle to keep the Grimm from even getting close. Fonseca had to push his Assaults further forward to act as lightning rods and draw the Grimm to them rather than the terrified populace. Losing even two or three operatives to locate and secure the downed craft would put his soldiers, and all these people, in danger.

Perhaps Bradford would have another option. "Central, this is Six-Actual. A transport ship went down on its way from Amity to our position. We're barely holding on here and aren't in a position to sortie a search party. Your recommendation, sir?"

" _Odds of survivors, Actual?_ "

"The ship came down hard, sir, but we can't be certain without visual confirmation."

Silence. Then, " _Keep that safe zone secure, Captain. We're re-routing a small detachment of Icarus squad to reinforce your position so you can secure the craft. But that safe zone is our number one priority._ "

"Understood, Central." Fonseca sighed. Better than nothing, but he really hoped that the people inside that ship were either dead or unconscious. For their own sake.

"Nevermores, three o'clock!" Seven-Four warned. "They're coming in for a strafing run."

Indeed, a wing of Nevermores broke off from the aerial battle and were flying straight for the fair grounds. And… was Otter imagining things, or did those Griffons join the Nevermores as a defensive escort? Grimm had never shown tactical intelligence before, so that had to be a coincidence.

"Strike the skies, Gunners!" Fonseca shouted. "Everyone else, take cover!"

Otter chucked another Flashbang to stun the ground forces so that his soldiers could focus on the larger threat, then pulled his patient to (relative) safety under one of the festival stalls. The squad Gunners revved up their heavy weapons and alloy-jacketed rounds filled up the darkening sky. To his left, Desperado slapped a magazine into his rifle, and Fonseca noticed the Flak Ammunition identifier stamped on the black casing.

"Always be shooting." Desperado said with a grin before raising his rifle and joining the Gunners in their fusillade. The Griffons came in first, and the withering arms fire tore them apart. As the shrieking fliers fell to the ground in dissolving balls of smoke, the relatively unscathed Nevermores swooped in shortly thereafter and unleashed their flurry of their hardened quills. The earth churned around the safe zone as fatal feathers ripped through stalls, tables, and trees.

"Man down!" One of the operatives shouted as a razorwing pierced the leg of a Gunner. Multiple civilians cried out as they suffered similar fates, and Otter noticed several that died instantly when the Nevermore hit their vital organs.

"Grimm coming in from the forest!" Another soldier reported, "Throwing a Flash to suppress."

The Nevermore finished their run and flew off to bank into a second attack. As the Gunners continued their attack on the deadly fliers, the surviving Griffons touched down in a cloud of dust and let out a bone-chilling screech to announce their arrival.

"Take down those Griffons." Fonseca ordered, though he felt his confidence flagging as the situation started to spiral out of control.

"We're definitely in the shit now, Otter." Desperado commented through gritted teeth as he pulled out his Autopistol and unloaded it into the skull of the nearest Griffon. Fonseca gripped his own rifle and joined in against Ward's target. With new contacts coming in from both land and sky, he knew that the safe zone wasn't going to be safe for much longer.

An unfamiliar shotgun blast rang out and staggered one of the Griffons, followed by a salvo of stone daggers that ripped into its flank and killed the beast before it hit the ground. A caped man leapt towards the next Griffon and sliced it in twain before kicking off to lash out at the next target. A purple hue engulfed several of the Nevermore quills buried in the ground, and caused them to levitate and angle themselves towards the returning fliers. A woman (also caped) stepped forward and kept her sights on the Nevermore.

"Don't give up." She said, brandishing her riding crop. The quills flew like rockets at the Grimm, eliciting another shriek from the horrors as the improvised weapons hit home. "These citizens need our help."

Fonseca nodded, then turned to his operatives to bark out new orders. "Gunners, keep focusing on those fliers until they're no longer a threat. Infantry, get back to keeping the tree line in check. Medics, attend to the wounded. Let's get this safe zone secured, soldiers."

* * *

Bradford was overseeing the (unfortunately slow) evacuation of JNPR's triage station in the arena with Penny and Shen when some good news came through the comms.

" _Central, several huntsmen have reinforced our ranks. These two are the real McCoy, sir. No idea where they came from, but I won't say no to the firepower they're packing._ "

To Bradford's surprise, Ozpin's voice answered Otter's question. " _Those would be two of mine, actually. I thought your Strike teams could use some help, Bradford._ "

"How kind of you to join us." The Central Officer answered dryly, "Coordination works much better when both sides communicate, Headmaster."

" _I believe Qrow said something similar to James several days ago, so I daresay he'd be inclined to agree with you._ " Ozpin answered. Was he chuckling? " _To be honest, I'd forgotten that you provided me with access to your communication system. I was… preoccupied with other matters._ "

While Bradford absolutely did not believe the first part of his excuse, he suspected that the second half explained the radio silence, albeit in Ozpin's usual vague and cryptic manner. If Bradford had to guess, Amber and the mysterious catacombs beneath Beacon played a significant role in the Headmaster's actions. "Well, it's good to hear from you all the same. How are things looking on your end?"

" _I am… ah…_ fortifying _the basement at the moment, though I would certainly appreciate it if you could lend some assistance.._ "

"Negative on that, sir." Bradford answered almost immediately, "As helpful as your reinforcements are, we're barely holding onto the fairgrounds as it is. The safety of the citizens has to come first."

" _You and I can agree on that, believe me. Perhaps, however, you misunderstand the importance of what I am trying to tell you._ "

The tone in his voice suggested that there was more importance to the Maidens than Ozpin had let on during their trip down into the labyrinth. Four powerful huntresses with supernatural abilities were a valuable asset, to be sure, but the firmness in the Headmaster's words told Bradford that he valued the Maidens for more than their combat acumen.

"How soon do you need the aid?" Bradford asked with a sigh.

" _The sooner the better, though I am aware of the travel difficulties imposed by the Grimm._ "

True enough, though Bradford had a plan to help with that. "BFG, you ready to go?"

" _The Griffons won't know what hit them, sir._ " Yang answered.

" _Central, we've got a problem. A big fucking problem._ "

Desperado? But the ground team just got help from Branwen and Goodwitch.

"What's the problem, Six-Two?"

" _It's the bots, sir. They just turned on us._ "

Bradford almost choked. "I'm sorry, what?"

" _He's not kidding!_ " Beagle cried over the comms, " _Ten-Seven just got shot in the back by a fuckin' toaster! This shit isn't helping with the panicking crowd, Brad._ "

Wasn't Beagle with Vahlen? Actually, it didn't matter. Bradford needed to find a way to stop this. "I'm open to suggestions, Shen." He said with a sideways glance at his companions.

"If the mechs were infected with a virus that used a trigger to change the IFF protocols, there isn't much we can do beyond putting them down." The Chief Engineer said before glancing at Penny. "If, however, it is a continuous transmitted signal…"

"You would be be correct! I do not know where the signal originates, however."

"So we can either kill the source or drown the signal…" Bradford mused. "Do you have a plan for either option?"

"Ordinarily, it would be difficult to sniff out the signal source given how powerful it must be to transmit the IFF command over such a wide range. Sergeant MacAuley's sensors will have a hard time zeroing in on the direction of the strongest signal. However, that one Atlesian airship did go rogue a minute ago…"

"Rogue airship is a good place to start." Bradford keyed his comm, "Squad leaders, listen up: Xiao Long is about to punch a hole through the Griffon blockade so that Icarus can rendezvous with the Amity team. I want a small detachment from Icarus to break off and target the hostile Cruiser and try to regain control of it. Exercise extreme caution: whatever took control of that ship managed to subdue or eliminate a highly-trained Atlesian crew. If you've got anyone with XCOM's personal brand of spidey senses, Major, I suggest you assign them to the assault team. Captain Rose, can you provide huntsman support?"

" _Yes sir._ "

"Ground team, do your best to keep the safe zone secure. In light of this new problem, I am authorizing the use of explosives. _Do not_ let civilians get caught as collateral damage. Once Icarus has arrived on Amity, Albatross pilots can rapidly redeploy huntsmen to reinforce your position. Amity teams, we need these civilians off the Colosseum ASAP. If there is anything you can do to safely speed up the process, do it. Beagle, double back to Dr. Vahlen's position and keep her safe."

" _On my way._ "

"You tell them them, Mister Bradradford, sir!"

Bradford looked over to see Penny, saluting him with a cheerful smile. That was the second time she tripped over her words, and despite her positive demeanor, something seemed… off. "If there's anything I can do to help, just let me know. I'm c-c-c-c-c-c-combat ready!"

Her eyes struggled to focus and re-focus every second or so, and Bradford noticed a slight twitch in the young girl's neck (though Penny herself seemed to be completely oblivious to the tic). A quick glance at Shen confirmed that Bradford wasn't imagining things, and that the Chief Engineer likewise found the subtle tics in Penny's behavior to be alarming.

"Captain Rose?" Bradford called over the comms, "Belay that order to join the cruiser raid. I need you down here in the arena. Immediately."

* * *

"Wonder what that could be?" Yang said as she glanced curiously at her sister.

"I don't know, but the urgency means it can't be anything good." Ruby sighed. "Are you gonna be okay on your own?"

Yang dropped into a braced stance and locked Ember Celica into its open configuration with a grin. "You have no idea how long I've been waiting for this moment, kiddo. While it's a shame you won't have front row seats for the awesomeness, I'm gonna be _fantastic_ on my own."

"Sounds good to me. Good luck!" Without another word, Ruby hopped off from her perch next to Yang to see what Bradford needed. Yang, however, had bigger fish to fry.

"Alright, Major. How are we looking?"

" _Icarus is maintaining a holding pattern and taking out stragglers from the main swarm. A few minor injuries, but nothing serious. That will probably change once we make a push towards Amity._ "

Yang's grin grew wider, though she knew that Annette couldn't see it. "Have your Rocketeers tag your break point, and I'll help you blow it wide open."

" _Give us a moment… Rockets live in three… two…_ "

A faint flash beyond the Griffon swarm flickered in and out of Yang's vision for a moment before blooming into a bright orange and red ball of flame. A cacophony of demonic shrieks answered the attack.

" _They did not appreciate that._ " One of the operatives commented.

"They're about to have more _burning_ matters at hand in about five seconds…" Yang quipped. The protective sheath on Ember Celica slid back to reveal the second row of explosives, kindly given to Yang by XCOM's R &D. The first pair of micro rockets racked into position and the targeting lasers flashed on with a quiet hum. Yang raised her arms skyward and aimed at the fading fire plume.

"First Devastator incoming."

The rocket shot into the air with a flick of Yang's wrist, and she tracked its flight path with her gauntlet. It exploded seconds later in a blast that sent the Griffons reeling from the concussive force. Without waiting for the Grimm to regroup, Yang shot a second rocket with her other fist and detonated it a little closer to the Colosseum than the first one. A third rocket followed, then a fourth and a fifth, leaving a trail of fire, flame, and swirling Grimm essence for Icarus to follow.

Yang let out a giddy laugh as a Nevermore spiraled towards the ground after taking a Devastator rocket to the face. "I just want to state for the record: Beags is the best gift-giver of all time."

" _Goddamn right I am._ "

" _Central, this is Icarus._ " Annette reported over comms, " _We're taking Xiao Long's opening and punching through the Grimm towards your position._ "

* * *

Of course, the flight to Amity was a lot bumpier than Annette had let on, much to MacAuley's frustration. All of those war games with JNPR and flight training sessions with the interceptor pilots were paying off in spades as XCOM's airborne division bobbed and weaved through the unfriendly skies. Gauss rounds chattered from Autorifles that sprayed into the cloud of monsters swarming in from all sides. Every few seconds, another rocket lit up the night's sky and scattered the Grimm, allowing Icarus to get a little closer to their goal.

" _Targets down and to the left._ " Annette called out. " _Light 'em up._ "

Of course, targets flew at them from above, below, and all angles in between, but Annette's callouts focused on the ones that posted an immediate threat to her soldiers. The squad banked right and the Infantrymen on the formation's belly tore into the Grimm trying to get within claw's reach of the soldiers. MacAuley rolled under an aggressive flier and fired a deterring burst into its flank before tucking his wings back and dropping altitude to dodge the monster's friend. A squawk to his left caused the Irishman to look over and see Annette surfing atop a flailing Griffon with her sword buried buried in its back.

"Showoff." He muttered as the Major sailed past him. He boosted past another Griffon and spun around to put a tight burst into its back. The rest of the squad seemed to be faring alright against the swarm, though the Grimm certainly weren't making things easy. Several operatives reported minor injuries and collisions as the sortie towards Amity continued. Another salvo from Yang, and MacAuley aimed for the burning smoke in an effort to follow his commanding officer.

"Fuck!"

The Engineer looked over to see one of his squadmates with tattered wings struggling to stay airborne. In the chaos from the latest blast, a Griffon managed to get close enough and rake its talons across the operative's back. The hit looked solid, and the Gunner started to tumble as the damage to his wings took its toll.

" _Operative down._ " Eightball called out over squad comms. " _I'm moving to recover._ "

The pilot swooped down from above. He carried no weapon of his own, but he wore the larger, utility-minded Albatross suit. Eightball threw out a tethered device once he was within range of the flailing operative that latched onto his target's suit and reeled him in. The impressive, armored wings of the Albatross had no trouble supporting the additional weight, and Eightball returned to the safety of the squad's interior with a boost from his archangel jets..

" _Nevermores coming in fast from the side._ " Another operative warned.

Annette's response came firm and swift. " _Everybody, gain altitude. We cannot afford to get within striking range of those feathers._ "

" _Icarus, I'm getting low on Devastators._ " Yang said, " _I can help you put down those Nevermores, but you need to break through sooner rather than later._ "

" _Understood, Sergeant. We're working on it. Rocketeeers, target those ravens._ "

* * *

The chatter of gunfire, the booms of explosions, and the screams of civilians and Grimm alike echoed in the background as Lily regained consciousness. She had a splitting headache, and spent a few minutes just hoping the throbbing pain would go away. When Lily came to terms with the fact that the headache would be sticking around for awhile, she took stock of her situation. The transport survived the crash… sort of. The entire right side of the cabin looked caved in, with the passenger seats twisted and cracked, and their occupants not moving. Lily heard a few pained groans from her side of the ship, and breathed a sigh of relief when she realized that others managed to survive the crash as well. Carefully, she undid her seat restraints and tried standing up. The motion felt a little shaky, and an initial wave of pain-induced nausea wash over her, but the feeling thankfully passed after several seconds.

No broken bones, no difficulty breathing, her hearing seemed fine… it was time to stop delaying and to start acting. With ginger steps, Lily began her search for others in need of help.

It didn't take long for her to find her first, unmistakably dead passenger. The shock of coming face-to-face with it for the first time caused Lily to fall backwards and emit a strangled scream, but she had the wherewithal to shove her arm up to her face to suppress the noise. She knew that the likelihood of everyone surviving was slim-to-zero, but that didn't make it any easier to stomach the sight of lifeless eyes and a ragdolled body marked with lacerations and broken bones. While she looked on in horror, the sound of squirming and muted sniffles from several seats ahead gave Lily something else to focus on, and she crawled over to investigate the source. A small faunus child who couldn't be older than eight (unless… was their biology different enough from humans to cause…? No, stop it. Focus, Lily) sat in a seat with his face in his hands and his body shaking.

"Mommy…" He softly wailed, "Mommy, I'm scared."

Nobody sat in the seat next to him, so Lily didn't know who his mother was or where to find her. She did know, however, that calming this boy down needed to become her top priority.

"Shhhh shh shh shh." She soothed, trying her best to project a calm outward appearance, "Hey, now. We'll get out of here and find your mother after this is all over, okay? But I need you to be brave and stay quiet."

The kid sniffled and looked up at the sound of someone talking to him, his eyes both terrified and confused. "Who… who are you?"

"Someone who got caught in the middle of this, just like you." Lily sighed, "But the only way we'll be okay is if we work hard at it. What's your name? Mine's Lily"

"E-Eldric." The boy answered. "Eldric Argentum."

A look at the silver-colored ears of a wolf on his head, and Lily didn't have to think very hard on how Eldric got his surname. "That's a nice name you have. Are you hurt, Eldric?"

After taking a moment to check himself, the kid shook his head. That was good, at least. Onward to Step Two.

"I'm going to undo your strap, alright?" Lily waited for the boy to nod before clicking the buckle and slowly removing the restraint. "Can you stand up for me?"

"I t-think so…"

Eldric slipped off of the chair with a slight _thud_ and looked up at Lily. "What do we do now?"

"We need to help the other people who are hurt." Lily answered. She absolutely did not want him to see the dead passengers, however. She glanced at his ears and got an idea. "I can do that myself, but I need you to stand guard for me, okay? It's super important, because there are a lot of scary noises outside, and it's hard for me to tell which ones are important. If you hear anything coming this way, I need you to let me know. Can you do that?"

Eldric nodded and gave Lily a confident nod. He had a mission now, and a new friend that was counting on him. "You bet."

"Good man." Lily said with a smile. "Here, let's find a spot for you to sit and listen, alright?"

She guided Eldric towards one end of the crashed ship, doing her best to block his view of the dead people as they moved. They reached a small gap in the hull, torn open by the crash no doubt, and Lily indicated where she wanted Eldric to sit. With a promise to come back after she finished checking on everyone else, Lily left her friend to stand guard as she returned to her search for more survivors. If Lady Luck harbored any pity for her whatsoever, one of the other passengers would be willing to take 'command' so Lily didn't have to think anymore. Barring that, all she could do was hope that help arrived soon… or take her own advice and work hard to find the help herself.

* * *

The elevator door opened with a friendly chime, and Ozpin strode out of the compartment and into the arched hallways beneath his school. The heels of his shoes clicked against the smooth tiles as he walked briskly towards his destination. While a pitched and deadly battle raged outside, nothing seemed damaged or disturbed down here. A good sign, to be sure, but the headmaster had no intention of leaving anything to chance. With Salem making her move (and such a bold one at that), anything was possible.

What could she possibly gain from something as overt as this? Since the beginning of their private little war, Salem had always stuck to the shadows, using manipulation and her soulless pets to achieve her aims. Tensions were already high among the four kingdoms when she instigated the Great War, which made it easy for her overt actions to be masked as international aggression. Now, though? During a time of peace across Remnant? The White Fang had become more aggressive lately, true, but this was out of character even for them. How did she plan to hide her hand of fate this time? _Would_ she try to hide it this time? Ozpin knew all-too-well that they couldn't keep the grudge match up forever (well… Salem probably could, but he couldn't), and so perhaps his adversary decided that the time had come to adjust her tactics to accommodate the change in their dynamic.

Well, whatever the reason, her decision to launch a full-scale attack during the Vytal Festival was brilliant. Awful, bloody, and quite inconvenient for Ozpin, but the pragmatist in the headmaster couldn't help but acknowledge the extremely effective and efficient play of his opponent. No matter how things played out, no matter how well Ironwood and Bradford succeeded at playing damage control, Salem had radically changed the course of Remnant's future in less than an hour.

He arrived at the end of the hallway, and breathed a small sigh of relief at the view that greeted him. Amber remained in her cell, and nothing looked out of place. Admittedly, Ozpin didn't have a particularly deep understanding of how the life support functioned, but all of the vital signs and biometric readouts looked normal. Moreover, his tripwires or early warning systems remained untriggered, so he could say with certainty that nothing had come this way yet.

However, the tremors in the ground indicated that the situation wouldn't stay that way for very long.

"Bradford." Ozpin said, keying the comm piece given to him only days before, "Sooner rather than later is preferable."

* * *

"I'm working on it." Bradford growled in response to Ozpin's request as he shot the head off of an incoming walker. An entire platoon of the damned robots had fallen out of the rogue cruiser as it maneuvered past Amity. While the flyover gave the detachment from Icarus squad a nice opportunity to approach the ship, Bradford now had to deal with all of the Knights landing in the center of the arena.

 _THUD. THUD._

And a pair of Paladins. Wonderful. At least the Atlesian toys were focused on the huntsmen in the arena and largely ignoring Bradford up in the stands. It made protecting Shen that much easier.

A sniper from Strike Ten took cover next to the Central Officer and glanced at the two newcomers. "So, about those MECs, sir…"

"Looking more and more attractive with every new development." Bradford gritted, "But I'm still holding out hope that we can do this without them. The more hidden abilities we have at our disposal, the better."

The marksman popped up, took a moment to aim her Gauss Long Rifle, and tore a hole through the chassis of another Knight. "Funny that we brought this tech along to deal with the Grimm, and now we're getting some extra mileage out of it with the 'bots."

"Funny indeed." On the arena floor, Ruby and Penny were working to cull the main body of the robots. The Knights fell easily enough, but the volume of return fire forced Ruby to be cautious. The mechanicals were avoiding Penny, which was convenient, but the girl's glitches were becoming more and more pronounced as time wore on. Penny managed to get one shot off with her beam attack before reporting that she was having trouble readying it for a second attack. She would start attacking one of the Knights, get confused, and switch to another. When she seized up mid-strike, Bradford decided that this situation wasn't going to resolve itself.

"Captain Rose, I'm guessing this isn't normal behavior for miss Polendina."

" _It's not._ " Ruby answered, concern written all over her tone. She'd fallen back from the bullet hell in the arena, but kept an eye on her malfunctioning friend. " _I've… never seen her do anything like this._ "

" _Central,_ " Van Doorn cut in, " _We've recovered the Odin from its latest op. I've been hearing chatter about Penny malfunctioning, so I've asked our Penny to report and see if she can shed some light on the situation._ "

After Van Doorn finished, Penny's cheerful tone carried over the comms. " _Salutations, Bradford! What appears to be the situation?_ "

Shen keyed his own comm piece. "Penny, my dear, do you know anything about how your original chassis is networked?"

" _What do you mean?_ "

Bradford understood the implication of his Chief Engineer's question, and he didn't like it one bit. "Something or someone has caused the Atlesian robots turn hostile." He explained, "If the re-write instructions were sent by remote signal to the Knights and Paladins, is it possible that they have affected the other Penny as well?"

The fact that Bradford had to wait a whole second for a response spoke volumes. "… _I think so. I've heard my father and General Ironwood talk about me coordinating Knight battalions, so it's possible my software is designed to wirelessly interface with their network._ "

"Fuck." Bradford sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. He looked over at Shen, heartbreak written all over the engineer's face. "Ideas, Doctor?"

"The sooner we can shut down or jam that signal, the better. I have nothing else." Shen answered miserably.

" _Arena team, this is Icarus._ " Annette announced, " _We recommend you take cover, because we're coming in hot._ "

All engaged operatives immediately fell back while the latest wave of Atlesian Knights touched down and formed ranks in the arena's center. Their robotic 'victory' lasted only a few seconds before a hailstorm of gauss weaponsfire tore into the stadium. With collateral damage no longer a concern, the airborne operatives from Icarus toggled their weapons to full auto and saturated the Griffons and mechs as they descended upon them like a host of valkyries from on high. At the head of the charge with her sword brandished was Annette. She crashed into the nearest damaged Knight and tore it in half with a forceful stroke of La Volonté and carried her momentum into a swing at the next target. Operatives landed beside her and continued their relentless assault against all hostiles in Amity's arena. Sniper fire took out critical systems on the Paladins while Icarus Gunners tore them to pieces.

While Griffons still continued to swarm overhead, the Colosseum's interior had been secured once again.

"All contacts down." Annette reported as she and her squad greeted Bradford with a salute. "Squad casualties are moderate but manageable, though I certainly wouldn't be opposed to a medical review from Sergeant Ren. The Cruiser Team is en route to their destination and should be arriving orders, sir?"

No time for small or pleasantries. "We have multiple objectives that need to be addressed simultaneously. First is to get all civilians off of this death trap as expediently and safely as possible. To that end, we have several student teams willing to assist, and Vahlen has requested several Engineers remain on standby in case the situation gets worse. And we expect the situation to get worse.

"Second, the fairgrounds need to be secured. We have huntsman support, but the volume of Grimm combined with their new robotic allies is creating a hostile environment for Otter's crew. Sergeant Schnee has agreed to spearhead that operation and will require the assistance of one of our Albatross pilots to reach the frontlines as quickly as possible. At some point, we need to sortie a rescue party to investigate the transport ship that went down in the area and search for survivors.

"Third, Ozpin has requested assistance at Beacon, and I've tapped Ren and Valkyrie for the job. Ozpin is being his usual self and not offering details, so I think the best we can do is airdrop the support team and let them rendezvous with the headmaster and take it from there."

To Bradford's surprise, Dr. Shen cut in. "Fourth, we are working on a solution for the mech problem. One possibly viable solution is to use Beacon Tower as an oversized jamming device that can drown out the kill order signal and render the Knights effectively inoperable."

"… Do we know how to turn Beacon into a jamming tower, Doctor?" Bradford asked, surprised by Shen's statement. Sure, they had discussed the signal issue, but Shen made it sound like they had a concrete game plan when in fact they didn't.

"Yes." Dr. Shen answered, a determined gleam in his eye, "And I'll need an escort to the tower so that I can implement the software."

"I… what?" Of all the things Bradford had anticipated today, Dr. Shen unilaterally deciding to go off on a commando op was definitely towards the bottom.

Shen picked up on Bradford's concern and looked the Central Officer dead in the eye. "If I'm forced to wait to hear news from my Lily, then the least I can do is lend my skills towards ending this nightmare."

"I think it's an inspired idea. I would be happy to personally escort you on your mission, sir." Annette offered.

"Take Arkos as well." Bradford said before looking at Annette, "It's not an insult to your skills, Major. Rather, you'll be taking one of my closest friends into a war zone, and I would like to provide as much top-tier protection as he'll let me."

"No offense taken, sir." Annette answered with a smile.

Bradford nodded and turned to address the entire airborne squad. "Alright, Icarus. We have our objectives laid out, and we have a battle to win. Let's get started."


	19. Bring It Down

A/N: So, uh... wow. Been a long time. I'm still not done with BoB, believe it or not, but I got kind of impatient with my original plan of 'waiting until it's all finished before posting again,' so fuck it, let's get this train rolling again. To everyone that waited patiently for the next chapter (after such a shitty cliffhanger, no less), you have my most heartfelt thank you. Your enjoyment of my story really does help keep me driven to continue, and I appreciate that a lot of you would periodically check in with me to see how I was doing. It means a lot, believe me.

As some of you have found out when you asked me, I got hit with a lot of (good) things all at once right around the time that my little hiatus started: moved into a new condo, got a dog, and work ramped up in a big way. On top of having my writing time slashed due to these factors, I quickly realized that the BoB had grown into a complex monster that wasn't as straight-forward as I had originally thought. Balancing 3, sometimes 4 sub-arcs in a single chapter and making sure they all get satisfactory resolutions? Not so easy.

The good news (at least I think it's good news) is that this chapter and the next two are double in size compared to what I usually put out, so at least there's some meaty content for you to sink your teeth into after waiting for so long. And honestly? Despite the complexity and how long it took to get this done, I'm pretty happy with what I've made. I had a lot of fun writing these chapters, and I think they do a good job of twisting XCOM into one of RWBY's craziest set-pieces to date. After BoB is completed, updates will likely remain slower than what I used to produce, but hopefully the storyline will have simplified a bit, and we won't have these ridiculous gaps between chapters like you've had to deal with for the last half of a year. At the very least, I've got content that will last for the next month and a half, so that should give me enough time to wrap up BoB and move on to the next stage of Remnant Unknown.

Without further ado... enjoy.

* * *

At Bradford's words, the arena erupted into a flurry of activity.

"You forgot this, bud."

Jaune looked up to see MacAuley press a familiar backpack into his chest, and cracked a grin. "You know, I was actually feeling pretty naked without it. Coco's minigun is fun and all, but there's something special about your first LMG, you know?"

"New contacts inbound." Ruby remarked.

"Nnnnno-no worries, friend!" Penny chirped, "We'll _ANiiIIHILate them toGETHER_."

"Okay, she's really starting to creep me out now." Bradford muttered. "Shen, get that jamming signal out as soon as you can."

"So long as you find my daughter with equal diligence." The elderly engineer quipped as his Albatross pilot suited him up for his flight.

"You know I will, Doctor. Keep him safe, Eightball." The pilot gave Bradford a wordless salute before returning to her charge.

" _We could use some help out here._ " Yang called out on the comms, " _We're trying our best with Ten and the kiddos to keep the civilians safe, but there's a lot of Grimm coming out of the woodwork._ "

Bradford sighed. "Any good news?"

Ten-Five answered. " _Yes, sir. CFVY just cleared out with the last of their civilians a minute ago, as did the professors on the south end, and are working to establish a safe perimeter at the city dropzone. We're consolidating our efforts on the docks held by ABRN and SSSN._ "

Bradford turned to the jump-jet operatives running gear checks in the arena. "Icarus, get to the docks and support the evacuation. The sooner we get those civilians out of here, the sooner we can get off this damn rock."

Crescent Rose accentuated the urgency of his order as Ruby opened up on another wave of Griffons flying in to attack the group. Several of Annette's operatives aimed skyward to join in with a fusillade while the rest moved towards the northern and eastern exits to support Strike Ten, Blake, Yang, and the freshman huntsmen teams.

"Engineers, on me."

MacAuley took stock as the other four Icarus Engineers that reported to his side. Altinsoy, Mtambe, Samuelson, and Senchin, all of whom were close friends with the Irishman from their days of keeping the anthill running before they enlisted for field duty. MacAuley couldn't think of anyone he trusted more with a spanner or a torch while the world went to hell around them.

MacAuley keyed his mic. "Vahlen, it's Mac. I'm headed to you with a group of guys and gals that are ready to un-fuck whatever it is your new worm buddy is doing."

" _Any help is welcome, Sergeant, but be advised: I've been allowed access to Amity's video feeds -to watch and despair at everything going wrong, I presume- and I can confirm that there are still mechs running loose in the stadium's hallways. The maintenance and security hallways have armed patrols, and it seems as though the infection hasn't altered their behavior to seek out and attack targets._ "

" _Yeah, the targets come to them._ " Beagle supplied with a hint of sarcasm, " _We've seen three Atlas techs get gunned down on the feeds so far. Guess they missed the memo about the murderbots._ "

"Albatross teams are ready to go, Central." Eightball reported, "We can begin delivery of the fairground and tower teams on your order."

"Order given." Bradford answered, "Deliver your packages, then assist with civilian rescue operations as you see fit. Insertion teams: you all have incredibly important objectives. See to it that you accomplish them with expedience."

"Understood, sir." Weiss said, rapier brandished and ready.

"You got it boss!" Nora saluted.

"We'll keep Dr. Shen safe." Pyrrha affirmed.

The away teams left with their Icarus escort while the engineering team did one final equipment check before their push to rendezvous with Vahlen. Bradford turned his attention back to the center of the arena in time to see Ruby duck under a swipe from Penny with a squeak.

"Be careful, Penny! We're on the same side, remember?"

"Are we?" Penny asked with a glance at Ruby, "Because it look looks like you're getting in my way."

That caused Ruby to stop aiming at the nearest Griffon and gawk in surprise. "Penny? What are you talking abo-?"

"Slacking on the job?" Penny asked, slicing a Griffon out of the sky, "Incompetence. Distinct evidence of collusion with XCOM," Slice, "An entity with an unknown agenda that has _repeatedly_ acted against General Ironwood's authority as head of security?" Slice, slice, stab, "Insubordination."

Ruby hefted her scythe and adopted a cautious stance as she watched Penny continue to kill Griffons with ruthless precision while offering uncharacteristically direct threats. And how did she learn that information about XCOM?

"Working with other Valean teams to create a mass-panic event with the goal of crippling Atlas's reputation and military strength?" Penny cleaved two more birds out of the air before refocusing her array of swords against Ruby "Insurrection."

Crescent Rose fired with a _bang_ and propelled Ruby out of harm's way. She had no idea where Penny was getting her information from, but they either didn't understand the situation with XCOM, or they didn't care. Was this why all of the Knights had suddenly turned against XCOM and the huntsmen? Was there someone in control of their communications that had the ability to mark Ruby and her friends as Public Enemy Number One? The young huntress zipped around the arena, dodging Penny and Griffons alike as she tried to figure out what was happening and how to stop it.

A volley of Gauss weaponsfire erupted from the edge of the arena, and Penny stumbled forward when several of the high-velocity rounds slammed into her back.

"As if I needed more evidence of your deceit." Penny said with a laugh. She turned her back on Ruby and spun her tethered swords around to deflect the rest of the onslaught with her wall of flashing blades. Once XCOM's loaded ammo seemed to run dry, Ruby watched in shock as Penny formed her swords into the familiar shape of an energy cannon.

" _Uhhhh, Cap?_ "

MacAuley's nervous voice snapped Ruby out of her slack-jawed stupor, and she bolted forward towards the haywire mech. The two collided a split second before the beam discharged. Neon green lanced in an arc across the stadium amid radioed yelps and expletives from the surprised XCOM team A section of the stadium collapsed in the wake of the wide gash Penny tore open with ease, sending concrete, rebar, plastic, and even bodies tumbling down towards the arena. The beam passed through the lighting rig overhead before Penny's energy expired, causing the stadium lights to come crashing down and cast the combatants in shadow.

" _Even without Sectopods, we're still dealing with goddamn Doom Cannons._ " The Irishman complained.

" _Engineering team, clear out of here._ " Bradford ordered, " _We need you to help Vahlen keep this rock in the air. If you're toast, then so is everyone else._ "

"… _Yes sir._ "

Ruby backstepped and ducked under another set of swipes from Penny, and she watched MacAuley's team safely leave from the corner of her eye. The only ones remaining were Penny, Bradford, and herself. Penny was still working to take down any Grimm that came close, which meant that she wasn't bringing her full force down upon Ruby just yet. Even so, Ruby had no plan for dealing with her rogue friend. What if it turned out that there was no option beyond… deactivation? Even if she was different from the Penny that Ruby had grown closer to and fought side-by-side with over the last few months, she still had the optimistic voice and naive outlook on life that Ruby and her friends knew all too well. If it came down to it, could she pull the trigger and put her friend down?

" _Alright, Captain, we need to find a way out of this mess._ "

Right. She didn't have to do this alone. If anyone could find a solution on the fly, it would be Bradford.

" _Let's get our lifeline back on the horn, shall we?_ " Bradford asked. " _Penny? You there, kiddo?_ "

" _Absolutely, Central! How may I be of service?_ " Penny's voice crackled over the comms.

"I'm right here, Bradford." The other Penny called out, and Ruby shuddered at the malicious undertone in her words. _That_ was something she'd never heard from Penny before. "I was going to deal with your non-compliant officer here first, but I'll be happy to change my priorities if you would prefer a more immediate termination."

Bradford froze. Aliens in a base assault, he could handle. A robot ninja with an absurdly large quantity of swords and a Doom Cannon? Not so much.

"Penny, I could use the help of a Norse God right about now, if you catch my drift."

* * *

"Keep moving team."

With his rifle at the ready, MacAuley moved through the maintenance halls with a purpose. More cramped and winding than the main thoroughfares used by guests, the service tunnels and maintenance routes didn't leave much room to maneuver. On the other hand, the pathways were full of supply boxes (as well as a not-insignificant amount of debris, courtesy of Evil Penny) that provided enough cover to dig in for firefights. Climbing down service ladders through tight manholes in full Icarus gear was not fun, however.

His small group had only encountered a couple of of Knights so far, which suited the Irishman just fine. The fewer surprise encounters he had to deal with, the faster he could reach Vahlen and stabilize this flying rock.

" _Master Sergeant, I'm seeing additional mechanized activity on my video feeds, though I am unable to determine where they are in relation to you. The worm -or its operator- has figured out that you are on your way to assist, and is systematically blocking and unblocking video feeds as you move through the facility._ "

As if on cue, another pair of mechs rounded the corner with guns blazing. One of MacAuley's operatives dropped to the floor with a pained grunt while the rest returned fire. Bullets ripped through the boxes MacAuley ducked behind with the injured Mtambe, showering him with packing debris and wood chips as he examined his squadmate for wounds. Vahlen's voice continued to speak in MacAuley's ear.

" _If I had to guess, I would say that our adversary is taunting me with this behavior, as I assume it would be very trivial for the virus to shut off my video feeds completely. Instead_ _, it has elected to make me effectively blind within sixty meters of your position while allowing me to continue watching the infected mechs kill innocents elsewhere inside the station._ "

"Could I get that in American, ma'am?" Samuelson asked as he riddled one of the mechs with bullet holes, "I don't speak European."

Vahlen sighed loudly over the comms, " _That's about two hundred feet, Corporal._ "

"Much obliged, Doctor."

" _It's like your team stirred up a hornet's nest._ " Jane Kelly commented, which briefly surprised MacAuley. He forgot that she and Tygan reached Vahlen's hidey hole before the mechs went rogue. " _I'm not even sure where they're all coming from._ "

"Behind us, sir!" MacAuley looked up from tending to Mtambe's (thankfully non-critical) wound to see another pair of mechs step into the hallway.

"We need to push forward." The Irishman said over the gunfire, "These boxes won't last forever."

The ground shuddered, enough to almost knock MacAuley off his feet, and he let out a groan. Why did things keep getting worse before they even showed a hint of getting better?

"Doc…"

Tygan answered for Vahlen, " _I've been monitoring this station's propulsion systems, and it appears that they are suffering a… critical problem._ "

"I don't like the sound of that, Newer Doc." MacAuley gritted tersely as he helped his injured squadmate move faster.

" _If I am understanding these readouts correctly, the system suffered an electrical overload that damaged some of the main circuit buses._ "

Well that was something MacAuley could work with. "And where might these buses be?"

" _On the station's exterior. Where the primary crystal interfaces with the constructed hardware._ "

"You're shitting me."

" _You know the drill, Mac._ " Beagle said. " _Yes sir first, ask questions later._ "

"Yes, sir." MacAuley sighed. He turned to his squad. "Sam, take Mtambe and push on to Vahlen. I want you both locked and loaded for any more toasters that try to slow you down. Altinsoy, Senchin? On me."

The trio altered backtracked towards a small warehouse room where MacAuley remembered seeing another service door that hopefully lead to the outer halls and the outside beyond.

"You both brought your modified arc throwers, right?" MacAuley asked.

"Does the Pope shit in the woods?" Senchin countered.

"You need to work on your idioms, Sen." Altinsoy muttered, "Contacts."

MacAuley knew they had to be close, as Beowolves started to reinforce the incoming mechs.

"Senchin…"

"On it." The Russian hefted his shotgun and took aim at the first charger. The firearm discharged with a deep _bang_ and tore a hole through the monster's chest. MacAuley and Altinsoy took on the mechs while Senchin continued to tangle with the wolves. MacAuley heard the distant sound of gunfire from behind, indicating that more of the robots had found their friends.

" _Friendlies secured._ " Jane reported, " _Had to deal with a couple bots first, but I figured you'd want to know, Sarge._ "

"I owe you a beer after this, Kelly." MacAuley answered as he kicked open a service hatch and felt a rush of wind from the high-altitude evening air.

" _Shit, make it four and you might just have yourself a deal._ "

The Irishman gave the thumbs-up to indicate that the side hatch did indeed lead to their desired destination. The trio jumped through the open doorway into a brief free fall and found themselves in the aerial mayhem surrounding the Colosseum once again. Sticking close to the face of Amity seemed to avoid the attention of the flying Grimm, which allowed MacAuley and his crew to survey the situation with relative safety.

Atlesian steel and demonic flesh clashed all around them in the churning skies. Unarmed transport ships frantically worked to deliver trapped civilians from Amity to the city below while Griffons and Nevermores harassed them from all sides. MacAuley noted that several of his comrades from Icarus squad offered short-ranged support for the airships close to the Colosseum, but the transports had to brave the stygian swarm for safety below once they left the XCOM-controlled airspace. Several Atlesian dogfighter craft still remained and offered what protection they could, but they had to contend with the rogue cruiser that seemed intent on turning them to ash.

MacAuley still couldn't quite get a read on the damn cruiser. After its initial blitz took out the other two capital ships, it unquestionably possessed the greatest firepower in this giant clusterfuck of a combat zone. Knocking Amity out of the sky would be a trivial matter, so why hang back and seemingly pick at the scraps? Hell, he wouldn't be surprised if it possessed the equipment necessary for aerial bombardment, so again… why leave the city alone? Sure, it deployed a lot of toasters when _they_ had turned rogue, but the ship didn't seem to be living up to its full capabilities. Then again, why was he looking a gift horse in the mouth?

"Targets at nine o'clock." Senchin reported, snapping MacAuley out of his musings.

"Evade." MacAuley ordered, "We've got work to do."

The trio banked into a dive to move past the roving Griffons while Altinsoy hailed Vahlen on comms. "So Doc, how do you know where to find this bus, anyway?"

" _I met a technician before… miss Adel's incident._ " Vahlen explained, " _He's been helping us in our efforts to get this virus under control._ "

" _It hasn't been working._ " Kelly added.

" _Thank you for that observation, Lieutenant._ " Vahlen quipped.

MacAuley cleared his throat. "Well, we're getting close to the main crystal. Can I just say that I'm glad you had a chance to add the hooks to these suits before shit went south?"

" _You may._ "

"Grapple out." Altinsoy announced, and her outstretched arm bucked from the force of the discharge mechanism. The hook grabbed onto the station's hull a split second later and reeled the engineer in towards Amity's exterior. MacAuley and Senchin followed suit and joined her at the crystal. The engineers didn't even need direction or commentary from the science team to detect the damage: burned metal and sparking wires told the story well enough on their own.

"Looks like a case of sabotage, Doc. We're on it." MacAuley reported. He nodded at his teammates and pulled out his Arc Thrower. The business end of the device flipped over with the push of a toggle to reveal a small welding torch. Another shudder of the station reminded the engineers that time was of the essence as they carefully moved about the structure to begin their repairs.

* * *

"Contacts right. Grimm."

"Alright, kid, you're up. Smash and scatter."

Sage nodded, gripping his sword tightly as he bent low and took aim at the oncoming Grimm. Once glance at his partner confirmed that Scarlet was likewise ready, and Sage leapt forward with an adrenal yell. The floor shuddered slightly beneath the huntsman's landing before he delivered a broad stroke that sent the Beowolves and Boarbatusks reeling. He heard the familiar sound of a grappling hook locking itself into place before Scarlet grabbed him and the duo swung, over the edge of the Colosseum itself and around the backside of the Grimm offensive. They landed just as the wolves were picking themselves up from Sage's initial strike, just in time for the burly fighter to plow into them again.

With the monsters disoriented for a second time, the partners quickly dove into an adjoining hallway as the XCOM soldiers lit up the main thoroughfare with bullets. Before they even had a chance to revel in the success of their gambit, the loaned comm piece from XCOM crackled in Sage's ear and he heard Annette's clipped, professional warning.

" _Fliers inbound. Icarus can't handle them all._ "

" _Then ABRN will help_." The Mistrali leader (Arslan, wasn't it?) answered.

" _Don't think you're leaving SSSN out of this,_ " Sun countered, " _Pull back and assist, team._ "

Sage and Scarlet raced back to the docking area (the last one, thankfully) to see their teammates already there with ABRN. Neptune and Nadir added their firepower to that of the soldiers shooting up at the oncoming birds while Reese raced skyward on her board to join Icarus. Arslan followed close behind, swinging herself up and into the fray with the help of a rail mounted on an incoming transport. Sun and Bolin swung their staves around in a whirling defense as Griffons dropped in with claws outstretched, eager to get at least one swipe in before succumbing to death. The two huntsmen flowed like water, moving from Grimm to Grimm and keeping each other covered as they kept the dock clear of threats.

" _Mechs coming in from the south hall._ " One of the operatives reported, " _I know those fliers are deadly, but we could use a little help over here._ "

Arslan watched Sage and Scarlet race off to help with the mechs as she sailed through the air. Dogfights broke out around her as the Icarus fliers traded shots with the Nevermores while the Griffons flew in close for opportunistic melee strikes against the occupied soldiers. That was where Arslan came in.

She flicked her dart at a nearby Griffon and altered course when the attached rope grew taut. Arslan pulled herself towards the monster, delivered a punch to its throat, and arced over a grateful soldier as she carried onward towards her next victim.

"I can't believe we're really doing this!" Reese called out as she flew up beside her leader.

"Doing what?" Arslan asked, hooking another Griffon.

Reese dipped just out of claw's reach of an oncoming Griffon and used her razor-sharp board to cut the creature lengthwise as it passed. "You know. Being heroes!"

To be honest, Arslan felt more like a shipwreck survivor struggling to find a piece of wood large enough to keep herself afloat amidst all the chaos, but she figured that Reese didn't need to know that. Captain Durand's words from a few days ago burned like a fire in her mind. 'You need to have the strength and resolve to command your squad when everything feels like it's falling apart around you.' It sure felt that way now, and it was all Arslan could do to keep a stoic look on her face as she tried her best to make her team useful in the face of darkness.

"Yeah." She answered to Reese's comment as she hooked herself onto another Griffon and altered course, "We can feel like heroes when this is all over. For now, we focus."

" _Nevermores!_ "

A flurry of quills sliced through the air around Arslan and her partner, and one left Reese spinning when it nicked her board.

"Reese!" Arslan cried, though she didn't have long to worry about her friend. Another quill made the one-in-a-million shot and severed her rope from the dart embedded in her anchoring Griffon. Arslan gasped as physics took its course and flung her away from the solid ground of the docks.

"H-help!" She squeaked into her mic as she tumbled head-over-foot. Was this how her story ended? A long fall followed by an unceremonious splatter?

"Ooph!"

Another object collided into her back and grabbed her firmly around the waist and her shoulders.

"Easy there, kiddo." A muffled voice said from over her shoulder, "You're in good hands now."

Arslan glanced up to see one of the heavy-duty support fliers looking back at her. The huntress breathed a sigh of relief. "You have my thanks, soldier."

"Pilot." The woman corrected. "Welcome aboard Air Firebrand."

Down on the docks, Sun and Bolin moved among the embedded quills and worked to assess and fix the damage. Icarus provided enough warning for the huntsmen and operatives to herd most of the civilians off of the exposed docks, but several people were still struck by the razor-sharp arrows. Casualties ranged from lightly-wounded, to unconscious, to dead. Sun's stomach churned at the sight of the fallen, each one a stark reminder that tragedies meant not everyone got to live happily ever after. Neptune and Nadir agreed to keep the pressure on with the other gunners while their partners helped the medics with triage and get the people organized again.

They picked through the field of feathers in search of civilians to help. Those that were merely shaken from the attack could be helped back to their feet with some words of encouragement, while others who were pinned down with a quill through their arm or leg required the huntsmen to flag down one of the professional medics for proper treatment. The dead… as much as Sun hated to admit it, they couldn't afford to spend time on the dead.

"How do those guys remain so calm?" Nadir asked as they let one of the XCOM operatives take over their latest patient, "I mean, we're doing alright ourselves, but they're acting like this is business as usual."

Sun shrugged. "Maybe it is. You guys got your assess handed to you by RWBY after their three week stint with these dudes. I can't imagine what they have to deal with day in and day out. Easy, big guy." He said to a burly faunus groaning in pain, "We've got you. The Nevermores are gone, so we need you to get back with everyone else waiting for the next ship."

"It's on its way." Bolin observed, pointing at the Atlesian craft making a beeline for the docks.

"Whussat?" The faunus said blearily, pointing at something behind them. Sun turned around to see a large object drop out of the sky and disappear into the Arena. Half a second later, the ground shuddered.

" _The hell was that?_ " Sun didn't recognize that voice.

" _That was Penny dropping in to say hello._ " That one belonged to the Bradford guy.

" _Sal-u-tations!_ " And that one was unmistakably Penny.

Another shudder, accompanied by a painful creaking, caused the two huntsmen and the faunus to trip sideways. Was Sun imagining things, or did the station feel like it was starting to tilt slightly.

" _Okay, that one wasn't us._ " Bradford said.

" _Kinda was, boss._ " Another voice said, " _We're in the middle of some sensitive shit down here, and Penny just knocked a lot of it loose._ "

" _Oh! I apologize, Master Sergeant! I did my best to minimize my impact shock, but the Odin is rather massive._ "

" _Yeah, I'm not trying to throw shade or anything, kiddo. But this station just become a lot less stable._ "

"Because of course." Sun muttered.

"Damn." Bolin muttered, "If they're rocking heavy equipment like _that_ , then you're probably right about this being business as usual."

Sun nodded in agreement. He watched the ship finish docking and saw a couple of XCOM's operatives start the process of getting the next batch of terrified and wounded civilians off of Amity. "C'mon, let's go help them load everyone up."

* * *

"You think this will help you, Bradford?" Penny asked, hatred burning in her voice, "Bringing in my other half as some sick, poetic way to put me down?"

Bradford continued to move silently among the stadium wreckage. Several walkways (trenches, more like) opened up like scars across the arena floor as Amity continued to slowly fall apart. The Central Officer figured he could stay out of the enraged Penny's line of sight by keeping his head down low, allowing Ruby (and now XCOM's Penny) to to keep the rogue bot occupied while she continued to vainly seek out and murder Bradford.

" _Well it certainly looks like you could use a reboot!_ "

Bless that optimistic AI's heart and her growing fondness for witty one-liners. Her arrival into the stadium caught the rogue Penny off-guard long enough for the radio exchange and for Ruby and Bradford to regain their bearings against the hostile threat. The Captain did her best to keep Brardford out of harm's way, but Penny's Doc Ock-esque sword attachments, Bradford's distinct survival disadvantage, and Ruby's hesitancy to actually hurt her friend gave the robotic girl an advantage in the 2-vs-1 fight. The Odin changed that with its three players.

XCOM's Penny obviously provided the greatest advantage towards leveling the playing field, but she arrived with two copilots: Forklift and Gidjit. Even though Penny was fully capable of wielding the Odin on her own, she and Dr. Shen came to the same conclusion that more processing units could never be a bad thing. In this case, the additional CPU came from both a biological and a mechanical source. William 'Forklift' Ryder was a recent addition to XCOM's MEC trooper cadre, trained specifically on the Odin to become Penny's co-pilot (and eventually take over when Penny re-merged with her Remnant counterpart). Bradford frequently authorized the dispatch of the Odin to hot spots around the globe partly in an effort to bring Forklift up to speed. While he often joked that he was 'just along for the ride' on these ops, Penny reported that he was more useful than he let on. Constant control of all the Odin's motor functions put a legitimate strain on Penny's computing cycles, and the ability to pass that off to another operator allowed her to focus on other critical systems of the MEC.

And then, of course, there was Gidjit. In addition deploying as additional fire support for the Odin, Gidjit quickly adapted to a role as Penny's 'chief munitions officer.' Thanks to Gidjit's attention and assistance, reload times for the Odin were dramatically reduced, and Shen's engineering team developed a hot-swapping system specifically with Gidjit in mind that allowed him to smoothly change the explosive payload intended for the Odin's shoulder-mounted MLRS. Finally, research into the alien Drones allowed Shen's team to provide Gidjit with the ability to make field repairs to the Odin (as well as other MECs deployed to an active AO).

Despite the Odin's massive frame, Penny and her copilots seemed to be doing a solid job of keeping their MEC safe. Granted, its enhanced cladding allowed the Odin to shrug off some of the faster (and therefore weaker) blows from the rogue Penny's bladestorm, but a proper combination of jetboot evasions and well-timed counterattacks left the infected huntress from scoring any deadly blows.

" _ARMOR HOLDING._ " Gidjit reported after another flurry of strikes. A bang erupted from the other end of the arena, and Penny staggered from Ruby's shot. A smaller report echoed from behind the Odin while the rogue bot had her head turned, and caused the young girl to yelp in pain.

"I thought you wanted to live, Bradford." Penny said through gritted teeth, her swords whirling defensively to block any more cheap shots from Ruby, "Was I mistaken?"

Cannonfire from the Odin forced Penny to quickly evade and cast a glare at the large mech.

" _Eyes on us, kiddo._ " Forklift called out, half-taunting, " _Gidjit?_ "

" _FIRING SOLUTION ACQUIRED. ENGAGING._ " A pintle-mounted Phoenix Cannon flipped into position on the shoulder opposite to the Odin's MLRS hardware.

"Thank God for XCOM's wunderteam." Bradford muttered.

The Odin began strafing around the perimeter of the arena as Gidjit laid down a withering barrage with his heavy-duty scatter cannon. Since the Odin had joined the fight, he'd started collecting and analyzing data in conjunction with his AI partner regarding their target's battlefield movement. While the analysis was far from complete, it did give Gidjit a small edge in predicting the rogue Penny's movements as she sought to counter the new threat. At the very least, the Phoenix Cannon effectively nullified Penny's ability to power up her own superweapon, as the charging process would leave her exposed for far too long.

Even with the heavy shotgun and the Odin's two main cannons raining fire upon her, Penny still managed to maneuver in close to start shredding the Odin. The MEC's massive jetboots fired to reposition the heavy frame, but Penny tethered herself with a sword jammed into the Odin's leg.

" _ASSISTANCE REQUESTED._ "

Ruby zipped and sliced the tether before diving into melee with Penny herself. With the heat shifted to Captain Rose, Forklift backed off to reload and re-assess the situation.

The pilot switched to the crew's internal channel to poll his cybernetic squadmates, "Ideas?"

" _Conventional arms are only useful for distracting my progenitor and forcing her to reposition._ " Penny observed, " _We will need to get creative to stop her._ "

A green light pinged Forklift's HUD, indicating that all weapons had finished reloading. Warning lights still announced the damage caused by the rogue Penny's assault. "I got the same sense. How about explosives? We should have some experimental rounds ready to load into the MLRS."

" _AFFIRMATIVE._ "

"Let's get some flashbangs loaded up first, but I want to keep some Dust explosive hot if the 'bangs don't give us the edge we need." Forklift switched to Bradford's comm, "Boss, I need you to hunker down. It's going to get interesting topside in a few seconds."

" _Understood. Be quick, Forklift. We can't afford to drag this out much longer._ "

" _Captain Rose!_ " Penny hailed over Ruby's comm, " _Please pull back in three… two… one!_ "

The MLRS snapped forward to its firing position as Ruby retreated, and the Odin unleashed a salvo of micro rockets that exploded in a blinding ball of magnesium and chaff.

" _My counterpart will adapt quickly to the distraction._ " Penny warned, " _Now is your chance, Ruby!_ "

Indeed, while the tethered blades had stopped whirling like Remnant's deadliest Cuisinart, Penny was already returning to a readied stance. A little red ball of rose petals and steel, however, crashed into the distracted robot and sent the two tumbling.

" _DUST SALVO READY IN FIVE._ " Gidjit announced. " _ROSE MUST EVACUATE ON MARK. MARK._ "

Ruby zipped out of the way as the MLRS launched another, staggered rocket volley. The first wave discharged a small cloud of electrical energy while the second blossomed into an ice structure that trapped the weakened Penny and most of her blades. In an instant, Ruby returned to the side of her friend once more.

"Penny! Penny, can you hear me?"

Penny twitched, and her mechanical pupils widened and re-focused. Ruby's heart sank as she saw the hatred remain in her friend's once-innocent eyes.

"T-t-raitor." Penny croaked, her body struggling against both the static discharge and the solid ice. Ruby could hear the faint sound of cracking, however, as Penny worked to break free. "You have brought-ought-ought this ruin upon us all. You must pay for your c-c-continued betrayal to humanity."

"Penny listen." Ruby pleaded, "I don't know what sort of things your programming is telling you, but you've got it all wrong. We're trying to help, just like you!"

The ice cracked a little more, and Penny continued to glare daggers at Ruby.

" _It appears that Penny is unable to fight off the virus._ " The Good Penny said, " _Perhaps a reboot is necessary._ "

" _Give us the quick version, Penny._ " Bradford said.

" _While our platform is designed to resist and protect against mild electrical current, our father devised a failsafe that would force a shutdown if there is a sufficiently large power surge._ "

" _This would have been useful to know earlier._ " Forklift commented.

" _It's never been tested._ " Penny explained, " _Partly because we've never needed to test it. Our Aura came online shortly thereafter, which provided sufficient protection and rendering the failsafe obsolete. The platform's Aura is clearly depleted at this time, however, and so a discharge is a viable solution._ "

 _Crack, crunch._ "It… it won't cause permanent damage, right?" Ruby asked.

" _It shouldn't. But then again, our father never anticipated something the size of the Odin delivering an EMP._ "

"And Amity?" Forklift asked.

" _ELECTROMAGNETIC SWEEP OF LOCAL AREA COMPLETED. NO CRITICAL FUNCTIONS DETECTED._ "

 _Crash_. One of Penny's swords broke free from its prison in a shower of icy shards and sliced Ruby's flank. The huntress yelped in surprise at the attack and clutched her side. Aura protected her from any serious damage, but the attack (and betrayal) still stung. The ground shook a second later with the Odin crashing down next to the encased Penny. Before Ruby could say anything, she heard the telltale whine of the EMP charging up before a wave of electrical energy surged through the stadium. Ruby watched as the pulse washed over her friend. Penny gasped and shuddered from the currents running rampant through her system before her eyes grew dark and the young girl fell back limply against the ice.

Silence followed for a few seconds, with only the distant sounds of battle drifting into the arena. Bradford carefully stepped out from cover, the Odin searched the skies for any additional threats, and Ruby's eyes remained fixed on Penny's limp body.

"I'm sorry." Ruby choked, her voice a whisper, "There was no time to find another way."

Bradford came to a stop next to the despondent huntress and put a hand on her shoulder. "You know this isn't the end." He said quietly, "There's room in the Odin to take the body with us, and I'm certain that the Doctors will do everything they can to restore Penny after this is all over."

"I know." Ruby said. She heaved a sigh, stood up, and unpacked Crescent Rose. "Doesn't make it hurt any less, though."

Bradford had nothing to say about that, so he watched in silence as Ruby angrily hacked away at the ice to extract Penny's frame.

* * *

" _You're doing good work, Master Sergeant. We've regained enough power flow to keep the station airborne._ " Vahlen announced. " _I recommend you continue making your repairs, however, in the event that our unwelcome friend attempts to overload another array._ "

"Yeah, we're working on it." MacAuley muttered. He aimed his grappling hook at another section of the station's crystal-mechanical interface and pulled himself towards the next smoking electrical bus. "Sen, how are we doing on the re-wire?"

" _It's taking some time to re-route all the wires._ " The Russian called back, " _The bus was complete toast when I opened it up, so it's difficult to determine what needs to be routed where. Progress is at around seventy percent. Our new friend Tygan has been rather helpful._ "

" _Thank you, Corporal._ "

" _For a biochemist._ "

"… _Thank you, Corporal._ "

Good. MacAuley assigned Senchin to the power box with the most damage on account of his steady hands, and it appeared to be the correct choice. Time to check in on the one he sent to do a flyover examination of the crystal. "Altinsoy? How's the magitech looking?"

" _Badly damaged._ " The other Engineer reported, " _Lots of crack propagations all over the main formation. I don't know if it's from stress caused by the atypical loads caused by… everything that's happened, or if these pigeons are slamming face-first into it._ "

"Or if there's more sabotage." MacAuley muttered. "Doc? Anything we can do to try and fix the damage?"

" _I did run some successful material science tests last month that used Elerium as a conductive thermoset._ " Vahlen said, " _Given Weiss's data regarding the reactions between Elerium and Dust, I would venture that the larger fractures could be temporarily patched up. Unfortunately…_ "

"… we didn't bring any Elerium thermoset." MacAuley guessed.

" _That, and I only have an experimental supply. I doubt I have enough in the labs to repair the damage reported by the Gunnery Sergeant._ "

 _CRUNCH. CRACK. CRASH._

" _Mac._ " Bradford said, the frustration almost tangible in his voice, " _What the hell was that?_ "

MacAuley blinked once, then twice. This couldn't really be happening, right? "For the record," he started, "Altinsoy forgot to knock on wood when she joked about the Nevermores crashing into the anti-grav crystal, so this is technically her fault."

" _Seriously?!_ "

MacAuley stared at the three birds, crack lines growing like spiderwebs around their embedded beaks, and the groans of the Dust formation only grew louder.

"I hope you're done with the evac, boss, because you _really_ need to haul ass off this thing. ASAP."

With a deafening snap, a solid third of the crystal formation shuddered and fell away, taking the Nevermores with it. Amity began to immediately list to one side.

* * *

"You don't need to tell me twice." Bradford groaned, "I need all XCOM personnel to evacuate Amity, effective immediately."

The sudden shift in the landscape had taken the Central Officer by surprise and sent him skidding to one end of the colosseum. Penny's heavy frame allowed her to stay anchored in spite of the heavy tilt, and Ruby hooked Crescent Rose into the ground to keep herself steady the moment the floor started to rotate. She'd only finished stowing the incapacitated Penny a few seconds before the loud crack echoed through the night sky. Once the Captain regained her balance, she bounded towards Bradford and helped him up.

"Let's get to the docks and see if there are any last-minute departures that could use some help."

Bradford nodded, then glanced back at the Odin. "Would you mind taking the high road and providing the docks with some defensive firepower? Ruby and I will move through the tunnels to assist the science team's evac."

" _It would be my pleasure, Bradford!_ "

The ground shuddered again, and the sound of rending metal echoed through the arena.

"… _Yeah, this station really isn't happy with its change from an undergrad statics engineering problem to a doctoral-level dynamics one._ "

Bradford opted to ignore MacAuley's sarcasm and instead focused on Ruby. "Lead the way, Captain."

The two of them started their journey to the docks, and quickly realized how much damage Penny had done during her insanity. The main thoroughfares that led from the arena to the outer rim were completely trashed. In the one closest to Bradford's position, fires burned, exposed wires sparked and sizzled, and twisted metal glowed red with heat, making for a potentially hazardous path to the outside. Jetboots ignited from their rear, marking the Odin's ascent to the top of the stands. Almost immediately, the damaged framework above Bradford's head began to creak and twist. Before he could react, a crimson bullet slammed into him and threw him forward into the tunnel to escape the serrated guillotine that would have killed him had he remained in place.

"You alright?" Ruby asked.

" _I am incredibly sorry, Bradford! I had no idea the extent of the structural damage caused by my counterpart to this stadium!_ "

"I'm fine." Bradford answered, picking himself up, "How is everyone else? Vahlen? Did your team manage to make it out?"

" _There's been some… eh…_ discussion _about that on the engineering comm, Central._ "

"Doctor…"

MacAuley's answered for Vahlen. " _I'm not leaving. Neither is my team._ "

Ruby and Bradford exchanged glances before the former got to work cutting down a maintenance access door and the latter keyed his comm. "I'm sorry. I must have stuttered when I ordered all hands to evacuate."

" _Respectfully sir, you can't see shit from inside the arena._ " MacAuley answered. Bradford was about to deliver a harsh reprimand when the Irishman added, " _This thing is on a crash-course for Vale._ "

That… changed some things.

" _And the Master Sergeant needs me to remain as well._ " Vahlen explained, " _To help regulate power to key sections of what remains of the propulsion crystal and correct its course._ "

"Not an option, Doctor. Find me a better one." Bradford answered tersely. Weaponsfire chattered down the hallway, forcing the Central Officer behind cover as a trio of Knights rounded a corner and marched towards them. Ruby crouched slightly, Crescent Rose brandished, and disappeared in a flurry of rose petals. Over the (for once, welcome) sound of rending metal, the debate continued.

" _If I may, Central._ " Tygan said, " _I believe I am functionally experienced with these systems to the point where I can remain in the Chief Scientist's stead._ "

Bradford peeked out and fired off a couple of shots at a new Knight marching towards Ruby. "You realize that Bailey will have my head if I let you die, Tygan."

" _If it's between my life and Vahlen's, I'm sure he will understand._ "

" _Don't sell yourself short, doctor. You have incredible potential._ " Vahlen argued.

" _And the scientific community will suffer a far greater blow if you are lost instead._ " Tygan countered.

The station groaned in protest as it continued to slowly fail.

" _Tick tock, guys._ " Beagle said.

Shit. Bradford hated these kinds of decisions.

"Vahlen, get to the docks. Take everyone with you except for Tygan."

" _With all due respect, sir,_ " Lieutenant Kelly said, " _I take my orders from the Councilman, and I believe my instructions were, 'keep Tygan safe.'_ "

"You know, you could have chimed in earlier when he was offering to stay." Bradford sighed.

" _I'm not arguing that he shouldn't. I'm arguing that I need to stay with him._ "

" _And you'd be fucking daft to think I'm leaving my adjutant behind._ " Beagle quipped.

"Because of course." Bradford muttered. He rejoined Ruby after she finished dispatching all of the Knights, and they continued down the access hallway. They heard heavy thumps from overhead.

" _Jesus, why didn't we have Penny dealing with the fliers sooner?_ "

" _I wish I could have helped, Corporal, but I was dealing with the enemy within the arena!_ "

The duo rounded a corner and saw the Chief Scientist up ahead with her operative escort.

"Doctor!" Bradford called out.

Vahlen turned around, and relief washed over her face. "I am glad to see that you're okay, Bradford."

"He's got me!" Ruby piped up, "Of course he's fine!"

The station rocked. Hard.

" _That was me._ " MacAuley said, his voice sheepish, " _Had to… ah…_ eject _a section of the crystal to make a course correction. Sorry about that._ "

"Do try to warn us next time, Master Sergeant." Vahlen said. She smiled a thank you at Ruby, who caught her before she fell from the shudder.

Now regrouped with the Chief Scientist's group, Ruby forged ahead once more towards the docks. The hallways continued to burn, the Odin continued to fire overhead, and the station continued to groan and creak. After all of MacAuley's 'modifications' to the station's propulsion, the floor beneath them stood at a ten degree tilt, though the unstable nature of the station caused that to fluctuate unpredictably.

" _The changes still aren't gonna cut it._ " MacAuley reported, " _We're severing as many non-essential sections of the propulsion grid as we can, but the primary thrust isn't pushing us away from the city fast enough._ "

" _Hold on, I'm getting something._ " Beagle said. Up ahead, Bradford saw the starry night sky. The group made it to the outer ring when Beagle spoke over comms again, " _Doc, your friend down in the main power plant? He said he can overload the generators for one final Hail Mary._ "

" _Station's probably gonna fall apart in the process._ " MacAuley warned, " _But I don't see any other options. How long will it take to fire up the burn?_ "

Silence, presumably as Beagle relayed the question to the technician. Bradford saw the docks up ahead. Operatives and huntsmen alike were working together to shoot down any fliers that came close, and the platform looked like a complete mess, but a final shuttle remained hovering alongside Amity, ready to take the last set of passengers off of the dying Colosseum.

" _He has it keyed up to fire as soon as I give the word._ " Beagle confirmed, " _Though the sooner he can push the button, the better chance we have of pulling this thing off._ "

Bradford made a motion for his group to hustle. "We're almost at the docks, Beags. And it looks like everyone else has already been evacuated. Give us another thirty seconds."

" _Incoming wing of Nevermores!_ "

" _Not for long! Major Durand, please instruct your fliers to disengage!_ "

As he continued to run, Bradford watched the Icarus operatives fall back before a salvo of rockets bloomed like fireworks in the middle of the Nevermore flock, followed by a withering barrage of weaponsfire that could only come from a deployed Cyberdisc.

One of Vahlen's escorts let out a low whistle. "Y'know… I'm starting to warm up to the idea of having a combat-ready Gidjit on our side."

Bradford, however, had bigger issues on his mind. "Penny, I know you're probably thinking that you could go down with the ship and possibly help our friends survive-"

" _Of course I can!_ "

"… But we need your firepower to turn the tide of the ground fight." The group reached the docks by this point, with Sun waving them over to the transport with an outstretched hand. "I have intel that suggests things aren't going as well as we'd like, even with the other MECs deployed, and the Odin is our ace in the hole that can blow that deadlock wide open."

" _But… I don't understand. The Captain…_ "

" _Go on ahead, kiddo._ " Beagle answered, an uncharacteristic tone of encouragement in his voice, " _If you think a meteoric fall on a high-tech asteroid is enough to kill me… well, I'm mildly offended that you have so little faith in me._ "

MacAuley grunted in agreement. " _Yeah, what's that thing Claymore liked to say? We do what we must, because we must._ "

"… _I understand._ " Penny said, though her tone spoke volumes about the truth. " _I'll deploy groundside and meet you at the landing zone._ "

" _Atta girl._ "

Bradford was the last to step aboard the shuttle, and the pilot pushed off seconds later with Annette's Icarus escort. "We're all clear, Beags. Light 'er up."

The skeleton crew didn't need to be told twice. A pregnant pause filled the air, and Bradford wondered if the plan failed. When the propulsion crystal became blindingly bright and caused the hairs on Bradford's arms to stand on end, however, a small sigh of relief escaped the Central Officer's lips.

" _Amity away._ " MacAuley announced, " _Oh yeah, this is going to work real nice. I can already see us veering off from the city._ "

" _Hey Brad, would you mind doing me a favor?_ " Beagle asked.

Bradford's ear perked at the Captain's question.

"Always happy to help, Beags." He answered, indicating that he had picked up on Beagle's opening code phrase.

" _Would you mind telling Papa Doorn that it's been an honor serving under him?_ "

Papa Doorn? Surely Beagle could have picked a more elegant choice of words. No matter, Bradford got the point of the message all the same.

"Will do, Captain."

Bradford watched chips from the overloaded crystal break off alongside loose metal plates and structural beams. MacAuley was right, though: the Hail Mary worked.

" _Odin taking off._ " Penny reported, with none of her usual cheerful demeanor, " _But I'm coming back with a recovery team the moment Central gives the go-ahead, alright?_ "

" _Yeah. We'll be waiting for you, Penny._ " Beagle answered.

For the next minute, Amity continued to grow smaller as it pushed itself further away from Vale and Bradford's retreating shuttle. A spontaneous silence fell over the comms, borne out of respect for the few who stayed behind to safely scuttle the derelict Colosseum. Shortly before impact, the propulsion crystal flared with a rumbling _boom_ , and Amity broke into three distinct pieces before shattering the earth with it's mighty crash.

* * *

A/N: One final thing, if I may. Another writer on this site was inspired back in April to create an expanded version of The List that includes the antics and tomfoolery that transpired during XCOM: RWBY Within. The tone of the one-shot is absolutely perfect, and I _highly_ recommend heading over to LoamLapse's profile to give it a look if you haven't had the pleasure of reading it already.


	20. Wrecking Ball

A/N: Boy, did those two weeks go by fast. Good news is that I'm about 1/3 of the way done with BoB's finale, so... maybe it'll be ready in time for posting? On a different note, this thing clocked in at 11k words, which I think is a record for me. So that's pretty cool. Maybe I should take three weeks to post the next chapter since this one was so long.

(Spoilers: I won't)

* * *

" _Jesus Christ, Penny is going NUTS._ "

" _Yeah, holy shit. The sooner Vahlen can land this thing, the better._ "

" _Who says she's gonna land it? She's dealing with some bullshit virus, remember?_ "

" _Man, this whole thing is going FUBAR, isn't it?_ "

Weiss's pilot sighed heavily and adjusted her comm piece. "No point keeping ourselves tuned into that mess. We've got our own to worry about now."

The pilot had a point. Weiss reached up for her own piece and re-tuned the ground team's channel. Her small detachment still had another minute or so before they reached the fairgrounds, but it couldn't hurt to listen in and get a feel for the situation before she put boots on the ground.

" _More Grimm coming in from the sides!_ "

" _Then put them down. We need the huntsmen focusing on those fucking Nevermores; they do not need to be distracted by a couple of wolves._ "

" _Is it just me, sir, or are the new waves getting harder to kill? Like they're evolving or something._ "

" _Corporal, you do know how evolution works, right?_ "

"Well that situation isn't sounding much better." The pilot muttered.

Weiss checked the Dust chambers in Myrtenaster, then eyed the fairgrounds as they came into view. "It's up to us to fix that."

With an energized flourish of her rapier, Weiss got the attention of the other Icarus troops flying in her formation before keying her comm to give out instructions. "We're just in time for the next wave of bullet fodder. I want a strafing run on the Grimm charging from the treeline, followed by the shock troops coming in hard and fast. Use the jump jets to stay one step ahead of your targets, and put on a good show for Otter's crew. They could use the morale boost."

The familiar shriek of a Nevermore pierced the sky. Oh right. Those. Well, it couldn't hurt to give Glynda a hand before Weiss joined the rest of Icarus. And she did say to put on a show, right?

"I'm going to do a little bit of light duck hunting before joining the ground team." Weiss said to the pilot, "Take us over that Nevermore duo so I can get the drop on them, if you please."

"Yes, ma'am." The pilot changed course while Weiss signaled for the rest of the Icarus team to stick with the original plan. The Nevermores continued on their flightpath towards the fairgrounds safe zone, evidently unaware of the danger flying in from above. Myrtenaster cut through the air a couple of times as a brief warm up before Weiss held the rapier at the ready, her frame poised for the impending drop.

"Good hunting, Sarge." The pilot said, and Weiss felt a small _click_ that signaled her detachment from the Albatross. "Give 'em hell."

Wind whipped past Weiss's face, but she focused on the small silhouette's slowly getting larger as she plummeted towards the ground. Her plan was simple enough: crash into one of the birds, use a little bit of Dust to put on some fireworks, and ride the corpse to the ground. Given that she saw Annette do something similar during Icarus's initial descent towards the Colosseum, she figured it would be a sufficiently impressive feat to score herself a few badassery points with the operatives. Unfortunately, the Nevermore's trajectory looked to be slightly off from her own. The pilot's aim was decent, but Weiss wouldn't hit her target without a little push.

Good thing she was a Schnee.

A cascade of snowflakes materialized like stepping stones, marking Weiss's path through the night sky. One by one, she kicked off from each glyph and propelled herself right into the backside of her monstrous prey. The Nevermore shrieked in pain once Weiss buried Myrtenaster up to the hilt into its shoulder. The rapier's revolver cycled twice to lock the Fire Dust into place, and Weiss pulled the trigger. Searing flames ignited down the length of her blade and cooked the Nevermore from the inside.

" _Vector locked, SAWs are hot._ "

Weiss looked down at the fairgrounds and saw the airborne Icarus soldiers tear through the fresh Grimm reinforcements. Autorifles spat out high-speed death, scattering the Beowolves, Creeps, and Boarbatusks as the fliers streaked past. The Assaults came in next, landing in the midst of the fray to fire point-blank shots at the shaken targets before lighting up their jump jets to reposition and eviscerate their next victim. Snipers and support operatives landed at Strike Six's defensive line and quickly took up positions to reinforce their weary comrades.

" _Ursa inbound._ "

" _That's a funny way to pronounce 'walking headshots._ '"

Weiss pulled Myrtenaster out of the Nevermore and lunged forward to bury it once again into the exposed base of its neck. The revolver cycled to the Elerium vial, and Weiss allowed herself a slight smirk before she powered up her weapon for a second time. The Nevermore loosed an earsplitting scream as it reacted to the raw energy of Vahlen's experimental Dust compound. Her 'injection' complete, Weiss fell back towards the flier's tail and away from the ticking time bomb she had just created. She didn't have to wait long for the head to explode in a halo of flame, and the spectacle elicited more than one response from the soldiers below.

" _Little early for celebratory fireworks, isn't it?_ "

" _The Queen has officially arrived for the party._ "

" _Fuckin' hell. THAT'S how you murder a crow._ "

" _Nitro… the man is standing_ right there _._ "

Weiss jumped off the back of her makeshift vehicle moments before it crashed into the ground and made a quick dash towards XCOM's position. Though the sky had begun to grow dark, small fires and scattered flares provided enough lighting for her to recognize Captain Fonseca.

"Believe me when I say you are a sight for sore eyes, my friend." Otter greeted as Weiss fell in next to him, "We are managing to hold against the Grimm for now, but they seem to grow stronger as the night falls upon us."

Desperado grunted his agreement. "Your huntsmen have been extremely helpful, but even they need time to take down some of the bigger critters. We've already encountered a couple of Deathstalkers and a... Taijitu?" The Rifleman took aim and popped off a few shots at another oncoming wave. "The fuckin' hydra snake. That one caused us some trouble."

"Distracted us so we didn't notice the burrowing Creeps before they were right under our feet." Fonseca explained, "That ruse alone accounts for a good chunk of our casualties."

"Any deaths so far?" Weiss asked.

"Several, unfortunately." Fonseca sighed. "We've lost two of our own -one to an Ursa rush, and the other from those damn Nevermores- and a number of civilians have fallen as well. The Atlesian security managed to round up everyone who was caught in the fairgrounds when the fighting broke out, and we've established a protective perimeter around them. Not much we could do to stop the air raids, though. Goodwitch is doing her best to deal with the birds, but even she is only human."

Weiss nodded. "Could be worse, though."

As if to punctuate her point, a chorus of guttural roars erupted from the forest, far deeper than anything Weiss had heard from an Ursa or Beowolf.

"Thank you for the insight, Elsa." Desperado commented dryly, checking his supply of ammunition before their new guests arrived. The Icarus operatives that arrived with Weiss fell back to the fairgrounds defensive line. Once they had a better understanding of the new threat, they could spearhead a counterattack, but the Long War had already taught them the wisdom of 'hunker down first, shoot aliens later' when faced with an unfamiliar foe.

" _Uhhh, Captain? I hate to tack on even more bad news, but we have a detachment of 'bots en route from Beacon. They've got Paladins._ "

" _Chinga tu madre_." Fonseca muttered darkly. Weiss never had a chance to learn Spanish from the operatives at XCOM, but she could guess the meaning from his tone. The Captain tweaked his comm piece before speaking again. "Commander, _please_ tell me that you have authorization to deploy MECs."

" _About a minute ago. I just deployed the Odin to the Colosseum, and now I'm moving into position for a low-altitude drop over the fairgrounds. I had planned to contact you once I had the relay warmed up._ "

"Whoever you plan to airdrop, sir, I need them ASAP. It looks like things are about to get bumpy down here."

" _Ten-Four, Otter. I'm giving you the best we've got._ "

That meant Talos and Gizmo. Weiss looked forward to fighting alongside them again. Another roar from the forest drew her attention from the radio conversation, and Weiss readied herself for… something. However, she didn't expect a small boulder to come hurtling out from the trees and crash through XCOM's barricades. The projectile winged one of the operatives, who cried out in surprise as he spun through the air once, twice, three times before slamming into the ground.

The tree closest to the clearing between the forest and the fairgrounds split in half as the stone thrower leapt into the air and slammed the earth, beady red eyes staring at the XCOM forces behind a battered faceplate of white bone.

" _Is… is that a gorilla?_ "

"Commander." Otter said over comms as two more of the strange Grimm charged into the clearing, "The sooner we can get that airdrop, the better."

* * *

"Are we all here?"

Lily looked around at the assembled group of survivors from the crash. Thankfully, a number of adults were in good enough condition to where they could take control and leave Lily to just worry about herself. Well, herself and Eldric. The little kid almost made her feel like a big sister, something she never got to experience before. Her father tried to give her a 'digital sibling' once, which was… weird. Although she knew that her father had nothing but the best intentions with the gesture, Julian wasn't exactly the same as having a living, breathing younger brother.

As Lily had guessed from his crying when she first met the young boy, Eldric lost his mother during the chaos. They had gone to the Colosseum together to watch the finals, and she rushed him to the docks as soon as the chaos began. The platforms were jam packed by the time Eldric and his mother reached the outer ring, and it was impossible for them to push towards the shuttles together. Eldric's mother convinced him to use his small size to weave through the legs of the panicking crowd and get on one of the first shuttles to leave. She promised Eldric that she would catch the earliest flight she could and join him in the city as soon as possible. Obviously, that plan had dramatically changed, and Lily didn't really know how she would reunite her newfound charge with his guardian. In any case, the first step was "stay alive," which was something she could focus on at least.

The man who had taken charge, a tall, muscular faunus named Bocephus, moved from survivor to survivor to perform one last physical check of everyone. He stopped in front of Lily and squatted down so he could be eye-level with Eldric.

"You two holding up okay?" He asked, voice low.

Eldric nodded wordlessly, and Lily gave a thumbs-up. "We're fine. A little shaken from… all of this, but I guess we all are."

"I've seen some pretty terrible stuff in the past, but nothing as bad as this." Bocephus agreed with a sigh, "But we'll be alright if we stick together and don't panic, alright? We can do this."

"Yeah."

Lily waited until Bocephus moved on to the next person before slipping a hand into her bag. She felt the shape of the small flare gun among the rest of her effects and let herself relax a little. Should she have given it to the group's new leader when everyone was taking stock of the available survival tools? Probably. But if she found herself in a situation where that gun meant the difference between life and death… disarming herself sounded like a really bad idea.

After all seven of the survivors had been personally checked by Bocephus, everyone gathered to determine their next move.

"We should stay here." One woman proposed, "The Grimm have left us alone so far, so why take the risk?"

Another man shook his head. "But if they change their minds, we have very little in the way of defense. We need to find the Atlas security and have them take us to safety."

"But where do we go?"

"There's a lot of gunfire coming from the city. Might be a good place to start." Bocephus said.

"You want us to head _towards_ the fighting?!" The woman cried.

"Towards the people with guns." Bocephus countered, "I've never seen a Grimm shoot before, so that gunfire has to be friendly."

Lily agreed with Bocephus, but she didn't have the energy to get involved in the discussion. In addition to hoping that the group would find Atlas soldiers trying to secure the city, Lily wanted to believe that she'd find XCOM operatives as well. She trusted them more than the Atlas soldiers, honestly, and it would be utterly relieving to see a familiar face. Furthermore, she could try to scavenge in the city while they were searching for help. Her father always said she had a knack for making something out of nothing, and Lily couldn't think of a better time to prove him right.

After one final gear check (with what little gear the group had scrounged up from the wreck), Bocephus signaled for the group to begin the long journey to the city. Under any other circumstances, the walk would have felt fairly short. With pandemonium erupting all across the city and the possibility Grimm lurking at every corner, however, it felt like Vale was miles and miles away.

* * *

Before Weiss had a chance to come up with a way to stop the gorilla (Beringel, right? Port's classes felt like a distant dream) charge, Qrow jumped in to save the day. He zipped forward faster than what should be possible for a man his age and tore up the earth with an arcing slice of his sword. The force of his attack sent a wave of projectiles flying at the Grimm, who slowed down just enough for Weiss to unleash a salvo of Aura bolts at the lead charger. This however, seemed to only enrage the Grimm, who reared back with a mighty roar, and sent Qrow skidding backwards with shockwaves that rippled through the ground.

"Yeah, you don't want to tickle these guys." The huntsman muttered, his eyes locked on the Grimm, "You have to hit them hard, or don't bother. Pokes will only get them angry."

"And we won't like it when they're angry." Desperado said with an eyeroll.

"Uh… no shit?"

Desperado decided it would be best to let the joke lie, and instead radioed orders to the rest of the squad, "All operatives, do not engage the gorillas. Snipers, you are clear to open fire, but _precision shots only_. Target their vitals, or don't bother at all."

" _Strike Six, this is Van Doorn. You've got a MEC drop on its way._ "

" _Well that's damn good timing, Commander,_ " Fonseca answered, " _Since we're about to be caught in the middle of a two-on-none slugfest. These newcomers are a class above anything we've ever dealt with._ "

" _Strike Six, this is Talos. If you could put down a flare to mark where you'd like us to- yep, that'll do nicely. Much appreciated, Elsa._ "

A large, rotating glyph spun lazily over the forest clearing, almost directly on top of the raging Beringels.

"Snipers." Desperado called, popping off a shot at each of the three Grimm, "It's now or never. Targets are painted."

" _Nevermores!_ "

" _Gunners, take them down._ "

" _Ground teams, this is Bradford. Be advised that the Colosseum is on a crash course for the fields outside of Vale._ "

" _Here come the 'bots!_ "

Like the rest of Strike Six and Icarus, Weiss didn't have the luxury of appreciating the implications of Bradford's warning. A multitude of more immediate issues climaxed in rapid succession. Four Gauss Long Rifles discharged with a sharp _crack_ as the squad's marksmen scored direct hits on their monstrous targets. The cries of the Nevermore echoed overhead, only for XCOM's heavy weapon crew to answer with a monsoon of bullets. As the raven quills rained down upon the fairgrounds, many of them seemingly broke off, curved before striking the ground, and flung themselves back at the fliers. Rockets exploded on the far side of the fairgrounds, and the radio chatter lit up with reports of first contact with the Atlas mechs. Qrow dashed off to assist with the Atlas fight, leaving Weiss and Desperado to watch the Beringels.

Just as the gorillas seemed to regain their bearings from the gauss headshots, the explosive blast of a MEC Particle Cannon knocked the lead Grimm off its feet before the two MECs made their thunderous entrance. Like mythical giants, with the lights of the firefight gleaming off of their armor, they rose from their rocket-boosted landing and prepared for battle. Weapons of power hummed in their hands, and servos whirred silently throughout their heavy frames to mobilize the awe-inspiring angels of death..

" _Engaging Juggernaut defenses._ " Talos announced. To his left, the modified Jetboots on Gizmo's frame remained hot, ready to fire and reposition the agility-focused suit at a moment's notice.

The Beringels weren't keen on waiting for long, however, and the one closest to Talos darted forward with impressive speed and delivered a punch to its newest threat. The MEC's enhanced plating emitted a loud _clang_ as its pilot deflected the impact and followed up with a quick counterstrike. The Beringel roared in frustration and delivered a headbutt straight to Talos's chest, causing the heavy MEC to skid backwards several feet. Before the other Grimm even had a chance to do the same to Gizmo, she jetted backwards out of critical range.

"Holy shit." An operative next to Weiss muttered, "These fuckers ain't screwing around."

" _Gizmo,_ " Otter hailed over comms, " _See if you can lead our guests on a chase towards the other end of the fairgrounds. Maybe they'll throw a punch or two at these Paladins and make our lives a little easier._ "

Gizmo immediately tagged one of the Beringels with her cannon. " _Understood. I will prioritize keeping the contacts away from our infantry._ "

"I can help with that." Weiss reported, watching as the enraged Beringel sideswiped a sprinting Beowolf that got in its way, "Between my ice and a few other combat tricks, I should be able to keep their focus on the MEC's."

Gizmo shot the alpha gorilla engaged with Talos, drawing its attention for a split second. The heavier MEC fired up its Kinetic Strike Module and delivered a blow to the monster's chest and tossed it towards Gizmo. A low-powered particle tap allowed Gizmo to have the alpha's undivided (and angry) attention. With its two companions chasing after the running MEC, the third gorilla followed suit. The heavier MEC retracted its defensive plating and dashed into the fairgrounds to meet up with Gizmo on the far side.

Weiss weaved in and out among the other operatives still gunning down the lesser Grimm. Icarus fliers took to the skies to assess the battlefield and pick their targets while Riflemen and Gunners continued to spray death from below. Anytime the Beringel posse seemed to shift their interest away from Gizmo and towards the fairground defenses, Weiss jumped in. She would lead off with a frozen wall to push the Grimm back on course before vaulting over the makeshift fortification at the wayward monster to attack it in melee and draw its attention back towards Gizmo. The MEC would pop off several shots at the Grimm, regain its attention, and Weiss would zip back to the fairground frontline.

" _Captain, we've got more huntsmen joining the fight._ "

" _Yeah, and some of them are really kicking ass!_ "

This worked well the first two times Weiss needed to intervene. Her natural speed and ability to rapidly reverse directions with glyphs meant that she had little trouble staying out of harm's way. On the third time, however, the Beringel seemed to have wizened to her antics. As she leapt over the ice and prepared to deliver a punishing slash to her target, Weiss saw the Beringel look up at her out of the corner of its eye and wind up a backhand.

"Shi-"

Weiss managed to twist herself just enough so that the gorilla only struck her shoulder, but she felt the blow ripple through her Aura all the same. Once the Beringel realized that its attack has sent the pesky huntress reeling, the monster completely broke off from its chase and bounded towards the dazed Weiss.

"Weiss is in trouble!" One of the operatives cried, and he emptied his rifle into the gorilla has it closed in on Weiss. One of the rounds got lucky and hit a soft spot on the monster, causing it to snap its head up, identify its new target, and make a near-instantaneous course correction to close into melee with the squishy operative. Weiss, still slightly weakened from the Beringel's glancing blow, had enough of her wits to realize that the operative had put himself in mortal danger.

"Gizmo!" Even as she said it, Weiss's body was already working to react to the new threat. She drilled Myrtenaster into the ground, and two glyphs appeared behind the horrified operative. The Beringel slammed its fist into the soldier like a freight train, launching his crumpled body through several festival stalls and past a gaggle of screaming civilians. The full-auto rifle chatter of the operative's panicking partner rang in Weiss's ears as her brain still worked to shake off the effects of the Beringel's power strike.

Amid the yells of nearby operatives preparing to fight back against the rampaging monster, brilliant lights flashed and a pair of spectral Berserkers leapt out of Weiss's summoning glyphs. They loosed an alien roar before charging at the enraged Grimm, with one delivering a shoulder check to the crouched monster while the other plunged its clawed gauntlets into the Beringel's exposed flank. The gorilla loosed a pained roar and tossed the spectral warrior back towards Weiss, and the trio readied their weapons to re-engage the Grimm in melee combat.

Before Weiss could give the order to attack, she heard a familiar voice from behind.

"… Sister?"

* * *

Lily's had reached the city outskirts when one of the survivors spotted the Colosseum. Everyone stood, immobilized in horror, as the station passed overhead like a comet, small pieces of Dust breaking off of the main crystal as it went, before the whole thing crashed beyond the hills and trees in the largest earthquake Lily had ever felt. She remembered the one that rippled through her hometown at the end of the alien war (courtesy of the Temple Ship, according to her father), and that quake paled in comparison to Amity's crash. For a brief moment, all sounds of gunfire stopped as soldiers and huntsmen of every faction took a moment to try and assess what had just happened.

The first thing to break the silence was a distant rumble in the far opposite direction of Amity's fall, followed by a screech that was unmistakably Grimm.

"Oh Dust…" one of the survivors whimpered, as another shrieking roar echoed in the distance "Oh Dust, oh Dust. We're not going to make it, are we? There's just… too many of them."

The source of the noise finally flew into view on its third roar, chilling Lily to the bone. "What… is that?"

"Something that should have remained sleeping." Bocephus answered, awestruck.

The dragon roared for a fourth time, and it sounded like all of the Grimm on Remnant had roared back in response. Lily shuddered at the cacophonous sound, and felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up as if she'd been electrified. Blood pounded in her ears while her legs suddenly felt like lead and her throat grew tight. After trying so hard to keep it together since the start of this whole catastrophe the sight of that… that thing had finally cracked Lily's armor.

She felt a small tug on her hand, and she looked down to see Eldric pointing into the sky. "Lily… Lily look."

Expecting to see even more horrors of this world rear their ugly heads, Lily followed the small child's finger and looked up to see two objects hurtling towards the city. As they grew close, the other members of the survivor party noticed them as well. Fires lit up beneath them a few seconds before they disappeared among Vale's skyline, and the sounds of rocket propulsion soon followed. In the split second that their descent had slowed down before they vanished entirely, Lily caught a glimpse that made her heart swell.

Those _had_ to be MECs.

"Is that another danger we have to worry about?" One of the survivors asked.

Lily shook her head. "No. That was hope." Now that she had proof that XCOM was out there (and committing MECs to the fight!), Lily felt life returning to her limbs, "We need to reach where those things landed, because I guarantee we'll be okay once we find them. Come on."

The dragon roared again, but it didn't phase Lily this time. That monster was far away, and the MECs were closer. They could bring it down, if worse came to worst. After touring XCOM's Engineering Bay with her father, Lily had no doubt about that. She picked up her feet and resumed her march towards the city with more confidence and certainty than she had five minutes ago.

"No."

Lily looked back to see almost half of the other survivors casting glares at her. "No, you're fucking crazy if you expect us to follow you into a warzone with _that thing_ flying around. We might as well just lay down now and give the Grimm an easy meal." The survivor turned his attention to Bocephus, "It was a mistake leaving the shuttle, and it was a mistake following you."

Bocephus stepped towards the insurgent, "Now hold on-"

"No." The man interrupted, his voice more confident as he backed away from the rest of the survivors, "No, I don't have a death wish. And none of you should be following him if you don't, either."

"Think this through-"

One of the others shook his head and laughed, "No, man. Fuck this shit. I'm out."

The splinter group turned around and hightailed back towards the shuttle. The remaining survivors looked to both Bocephus and Lily, who could see fear creeping more and more into their expressions. The anger Lily felt at the other survivors for pulling a stunt like that, for slashing their odds of survival and sowing doubt among those remaining, only served to fuel her drive to prove them wrong. She spoke before Bocephus had the chance to think of something to say.

"We'll be fine." She said, "Do you know how I know? Because have a plan. I know where we need to go, who we'll find when we get there, and I know that the fact that you're still here means that you have at least some confidence that I know what I'm doing. I promise that I won't let you down. But first, we need to find tools for survival. Since we have an entire city ahead of us, it shouldn't be difficult. And if we can't find them, we'll make them. If you find anything that you think might be useful, we'll check it out and see what we can do with it. C'mon."

Bocephus caught on to Lily's surety and waved the rest of the group forward. They walked in silence through the outskirts of Vale as the sounds of monsters and war rattled in the distance. Lily kept one hand on Eldric's back and the other in her bag, the feel of the flare gun providing her with a small boost of confidence. A shadow would skitter in the darkness now and again, causing the group to freeze up for a few terrified seconds. Every time, Bocephus would stand tall and move to put himself between his people and whatever had decided to go bump in the night. Lily had to admire his courage: despite the fact that the man was likely scared deep down, he put on a show of strength to keep the group's fear in check. Without him, Lily didn't want to think about how quickly the Grimm would descend upon the survivors like a pack of vultures.

The outskirts had been overrun and abandoned long before Lily's group arrived. They moved through broken doorways, ravaged windows, and a few burned out buildings to scavenge anything they could find. The group quickly realized that Lily had a way with hardware. As survivors pooled their resources from one house, Lily noticed they had the materials necessary to make a small handheld explosive. In another building, she stripped down some gardening tools to craft a makeshift spear. A whipcord here, a noisemaker there, and Lily slowly continued to outfit the rest of the survivors with tools that could help them hold off a wandering Grimm. It might only be precious seconds… but who knew if that's all they would need?

Tall buildings loomed overhead in a matter of minutes, and Bocephus took a moment to let the survivors catch their breath and collect themselves before proceeding into the heart of the city. The fighting grew louder now, with the rattle of gunfire and the cries of soulless monsters echoing through the streets and alleyways. Lily's heart pounded against her chest, though she tried her hardest to remain calm.

"Alright everyone." Bocephus said quietly, "Let's go."

They crept further into the city, sticking close to the shadows to try and stay out of sight. Beowolves and Ursa ran in and out of view as they dashed between buildings on the hunt for their next victim. Bocephus continued to whisper words of encouragement to the group. Progress slowed considerably as the survivors grew much more cautious now that the Grimm posed a very real, very immediate threat. And yet, something was acting like a lightning rod for them, as all of the monsters seemed to flow in the same direction. Lily guessed that the MEC's were deployed for a reason, and that reason probably involved defending a large group of terrified civilians. How else was her group able to move basically undetected in a city overrun with the Grimm?

"Hey Lily." One of the men called out from within a small liquor store, "Over here."

Lily told Eldric to stay with Bocephus before she slipped into the store to examine what the man had found. She saw him crouched over a dead Atlesian soldier. While the sight initially reminded Lily that she still hadn't grown used to the sight of dead people, she quickly zeroed in on what had caught the man's eye. Or ear, actually.

"A radio…" She breathed. The muted noises were all garbled and drenched in white noise, but the radio inside the soldier's helmet was definitely on.

The survivor nodded, "Badly damaged, but I figured…"

"It's worth a shot." Lily agreed, "Get everyone inside while I have a crack at this."

Lily carefully pried the helmet off of the unfortunate soul, once again fighting back the urge to retch, and examined the inside. She would have to disassemble the helmet itself so she could get at the radio, which might be a bit difficult with the sleek design of the system. And if there was damage to the actual circuit board, how would she repair it?

"One step at a time, Lily." She reminded herself.

The group joined her in the building and hunkered down while Lily got to work. The damage to the board was minimal: not enough to completely destroy the radio, but enough to keep it from working properly. She located the break point on the signal path, but how was she going to fix it without solder and an iron? One of the survivors had found a lighter earlier, she reminded herself, so perhaps she could reflow the solder already on the board and carefully realign the chip that got knocked loose.

"Bocephus, could you toss me the lighter?"

A few tense minutes later, and Lily held up the finished board to the dim lighting in their room.

"It's as good as it's going to get… Let's hope this works."

She carefully reconnected the cables linking the board to the rest of the system, examined the wiring for any further breaks, and took a steady breath. If it didn't work, it didn't work. But at least the group had a chance to rest. She checked to make sure the volume dial was turned down, then tapped the power button. Nothing lit up, but that was because Lily had disconnected the non-essential components to conserve power. Lily picked up the gutted helmet and carefully held the speaker to her ear, and her heart soared at the faint sound of comm chatter.

" _-rimm are everywhere, Sergeant!_ "

" _Yeah, and our mechs are going nuts, too. What the hell is going on?_ "

" _Man, I didn't sign up for this shit, sir._ "

Sounded like Atlas comms. Made sense. Lily needed to figure out how to manually switch so that she could pick up XCOM's signals. Unfortunately, she wasn't familiar enough with the Atlesian circuit board architecture to know how to switch bandwidths the physical way, and she didn't have any equipment to measure what frequency she was on, anyway. She'd have to use the tuning dial and hope that it wasn't just dialed in to a few select frequencies.

" _-eaking news, as Vale is over-_ "

Nope.

" _-can anybody hear me? We're trapped on-_ "

Tragic, but nothing Lily could do. At least it confirmed that this radio wasn't just for official Atlas comms.

" _Got some nice shops up ahead, easy targ-_ "

Looters? Seriously?

" _-I loooove you baaaaaaby. Yeah, I've-_ "

Nope.

"Is it working?" Eldric whispered, "Are people coming to help us?"

"I'm working on it, Eldric. Just sit tight for now." Lily answered.

" _-need more air support, Captain. The cruiser took down most of our fighters, and that dragon-_ "

More help from Atlas would be welcome, but not really Lily's concern at the moment.

" _-entral, this is Three-Actual. We're maintaining the perimeter with the help of the new MECs. Vulcan's crew is setting up to start hammering away at the new contact, but it'll be a minute before the MACs are online._ "

There. Her dad only let her watch a few videos from the mission archives, but she knew enough of those words to recognize XCOM chatter. With trembling hands, she pressed the transmit button on the radio and spoke into the mic.

"H-hello? Can you… can you hear me?"

Silence. Then, " _This channel is for priority comms, ma'am. Identify yourself._ "

Oh. Right. "My name is Lily Shen. I… I'm in the city with some survivors, and we're trying to find your, uh… perimeter."

Almost immediately, Lily heard Bradford's voice, and she almost cried at the sound of someone she finally recognized, " _Lily, this is Bradford. We have Strike Teams available for extraction. We need to know your location, however. Are you able to get to a high rise, or do you have a means of making a signal?_ "

"Yes, sir." She said, her voice a little more confident now, "I have a flare gun that I can use. Will that work?"

" _That's perfect, Lily. Throw that up, and we'll send a squad ASAP._ "

" _Boss, we'll need to be quick with the rescue op. Mothra is coming around for another pass, which means we're going to be swimming in Grimm shortly._ "

The dragon? What did that have to do with more Grimm? Were they drawn to it or something? No matter, the soldier seemed to know what he was talking about, so Lily had to take his word for it.

"We'll shoot the flare, and then hunker down, sir. If the Grimm show up, we'll be able to hold them off for a little bit..."

" _... But not for long. Understood, Lily. Extraction team is prepped and ready to move once you light the candle. Get to it._ "

Lily put down the radio and looked up at her group. "Help is on the way, but we need to hold out until they arrive. Apparently more Grimm are coming into the city soon."

Bocephus hefted his spear, "Well, it's a good thing you gave us some toys to play with, then. As long as your help is indeed coming, we'll make sure we're here to take advantage of it."

"Agreed. And if what we have isn't enough…" Lily gestured at the shelves around them, "That's a lot of alcohol we can put to good use."

* * *

" _K-kaiju! They've got a fucking kaiju!_ "

" _Yeah, and we've got Jaegers, so what's got you so rattled?_ "

Weiss was too occupied with both the Beringel problem and the surprise appearance of her sister to be concerned with the dragon rearing its ugly head.

"I've never seen any Grimm like that before." Winter said, gesturing at the Berserkers as they continued to trade blows with the Beringel. Not to be outdone by her little sister, Winter had summoned a pair of ghostly Beowolves to join the fray. Between the four of them and the two huntresses adding in strikes of their own, the beast struggled to figure out who to lash out at first.

"They're not Grimm." Weiss answered, cutting deep into the Beringel's flank while Winter drew the monster's attention. Before it had a chance to turn around and retaliate, four summons slammed into the gorilla and forced it to ignore Weiss.

"But our family's ability to summon only works on foes we have slain ourselves." Winter pressed. She darted between her pets and stabbed the Beringel in the arm. The monster roared in pain and swung its wounded limb in a wide backhand, instantly disintegrating one Beowolf and knocking the other to the ground. The Berserkers, Weiss noted with no small amount of satisfaction, remained fully formed and lusting for blood despite the Grimm's heavy smash.

Weiss rolled her eyes. "I've killed plenty of these things, believe me." She summoned a series of platform glyphs, and Winter wasted no time in bouncing from one to the next and delivering a razor-sharp strike to the Beringel's back with every pass. When the Grimm reached up to grab Winter, the Berserkers charged forward and stabbed the monster in the chest with their clawed gauntlets.

Winter leapt high into the air from the final glyph, split her sword into two, and drove both blades into the gaping mouth of the enraged gorilla. "Well it's good to see that your schooling at Beacon hasn't failed you."

"You didn't learn that from the tournament?" Weiss asked, incredulously.

Winter shrugged as they dashed towards the Paladin vs. Beringel vs. MEC slugfest. "Tournaments are a controlled setting." Before Weiss could come up with a proper retort, her sister added, "You and your friends have a lot of explaining to do when this is all over."

"Same could be said for you." Weiss countered, "What are you doing here?"

"General Ironwood suspected that he would need to send some resources to support the Valean Recon Division. Or should I say, _Excom_?" She practically spat the last word, before waving an arm at the chaos around them, "It appears that he suspected right."

With venom on the tip of her tongue, Weiss eventually decided it was best not to take her sister's bait on that one. Gunfire still lit up the night behind them as the XCOM operatives continued to fend off the Grimm incursion. To their front, more operatives hunkered down behind cover and traded shots with the Atlesian Knights while Qrow, Glynda, and a handful of other huntsmen occupied the trio of Paladins. Rounding the outskirts of the fairground tents on her high-powered Titanium servos, came Gizmo with the remaining Beringel pursuers.

" _Stand clear of the Paladin,_ " the MEC warned. Her weapon discharged a second later, cratering the shoulder of one of the rogue mechs and diverting its attention from the huntsmen. The robot raised one of its arm cannons and took aim at Gizmo. The MEC's jetboot array pulled the suit's out from beneath the chassis and Gizmo dropped into a power slide. The Paladin's shot soared overhead and crash into the pursuing Beringel while Gizmo slid past the mech. The Grimm, its attention completely on the new assailant, plowed into the Paladin's midsection and set to work rending metal.

"Hah, even I have to admit that was clever." Qrow said with a grin, brandishing his weapon with an eye on the other Paladin. Unlike the tin soldiers Ironwood had unveiled several weeks ago, these mechs sported some clear upgrades. Rather than look at the catastrophe with Torchwick's stolen mech and realize that these things could be dangerous in the wrong hands, the General had clearly viewed the event as a shakedown run of his pet project and sought to shore up the weaknesses exhibited by the rogue mech in its fight against Team RWBY. Superior armor, superior weapons, improved targeting systems… and as the icing on a shit cake, some egghead decided that it would be a _great_ idea to make an elite variant that took all those upgrades and pushed them further. Like some kind of stupid mechanical equivalent of an experienced sergeant at the forefront of its squad.

While Qrow knew he could hold his own in combat against Ironwood's machines, the added challenge of keeping the civilians (and to a lesser extent, the XCOM operatives) safe made things complicated. An unspoken understanding quickly formed between the huntsmen and the operatives that the former would deal with the big 'bots while the latter handled their swarming entourage of smaller walkers. To their credit, the soldiers proved to be competent marksmen, and Qrow would be the first to admit that the fight became ten times easier thanks to their supporting firepower.

Unfortunately, they didn't possess the ability to shoot a barrage of micro missiles out of the sky. Good thing Qrow could outrun the dumb robot's lock-on system-

"Oh hell…"

It looked like the ubermech finally figured out that it was wasting its time with the agile huntsmen and decided to instead set its sights on the less mobile soldiers in the back. Unless those Rocketeers were hiding chaff rockets up their asses, Qrow was about to have a lot of casualties on his hands. The student huntsmen tried to take advantage of the mech's immobile state by slipping in some of their harder-hitting attacks. However, its armored plating combined with the defensive fire from the other Paladin (who didn't have to worry about a pair of Beringels pounding its face in) meant that none of them succeeded in critically damaging the damn thing.

Even though Qrow knew he couldn't take down all of the missiles, he still had to try. He crouched low and made a calculated guess where the robot chose to aim its the ubermech achieved lockon, the explosive payload flew out of its pods like a swarm of agitated Rapier Wasps. Qrow leapt into the air, blade spinning like a dust devil. He felt his sword slice through one missile, and he swung it around to split two more. As the barrage soared past him, Qrow twisted in midair to shoot a fourth and fifth with a blast from his shotgun.

The rest of the salvo continued arcing towards its targets, and Qrow watched the second XCOM MEC break clear of the fairgrounds and sprint towards the oncoming explosives. Its pilot deployed an arm-mounted blast shield before firing its jet boots to meet the missile strike head-on. The MEC disappeared in a cloud of flame as the explosives struck its shield and detonated in rapid succession. Like a phoenix rising from the ashes, the armored warrior burst forth from the inferno and landed with earth-trembling force to face the awaiting Paladin.

" _You'll have to do better than that._ " The pilot taunted as the rest of its armored reinforcement slid into place. The blast shield stayed open and the thrusters on its left arm powered up, and Qrow deduced that this one was more melee-oriented than its agile, trickshotting partner.

"My kind of dude." Qrow said with a grin. The huntsman form-shifted his weapon into a scythe as he darted forward past his armored ally. He ran under the ubermech and hooked his weapon on the underside of the its chassis, using his momentum to flip up and land on the robot's shoulder. The Paladin started to fire shells from its main cannons at the heavy MEC, and Qrow watched the pilot hunker down and tank the hits, its shaped armor deflecting the worst of each hit and leaving the MEC only moderately damaged. Small arms fire continued to pour from both sides as the XCOM operatives kept the Knights' focus off of the high priority targets. Qrow identified a gap in the mech's armored exterior and swung his scythe around to bury it deep into the weak point. The mech jerked back, identified the source of the problem and spun around in an effort to unseat its attacker.

A roar from the right turned the attention of the battlefield to Gizmo, who dashed towards the unbalanced Paladin. She grabbed onto its leg as she passed to swing herself into a hard left turn and evade another salvo from the other Paladin.

" _Talos._ " She called.

" _Of course._ " Her teammate answered. The heavy MEC stood firm and stared down the gorilla giving chase to Gizmo. Talos twisted his frame at the last second to redirect the monster's momentum and send it tumbling past the two warriors, leaving the Beringel exposed to a backshot from Gizmo and a grenade from Talos.

 _CRUNCH._

Talos jerked forward as the Beringel's partner struck him from behind. The MEC drove his elbow back into the Grimm's face to drive off his attacker, only for the two of them to be engulfed in explosive fire from the lesser Paladin.

"Huntsmen, advance. We need to keep the pressure off our 'bots." Qrow ordered. A MEC shot from across the field drew the Beringel's attention off of Talos, who took the opportunity to reassess the battlefield and return his focus to the Paladin.

" _Operatives, cover the huntsmen,_ " He instructed, blast shield deployed once more, " _And take cover behind me._ "

A squad of operatives dashed to Talos's position while several Gunners stayed back to lay down suppressive fire against the remaining Knights. Gauss Long Rifles rang out in the night as Snipers put down the critically wounded Beringel before turning their attention to the main Paladin. Medics tossed Smoke Grenades out to provide cover for the huntsmen out in the open. Assaults in Titan armor dashed forward with ablative shields at the ready to mop up the man-sized walkers.

Walls of ice rose up to provide makeshift barricades for the members of the forward rush as Weiss and Winter moved to assist. Their summons had served a worthy role in bringing down the first Beringel, and the sisters opted to conserve their remaining energy by raising defenses on an as-needed basis. Gizmo continued to perform a careful dance that balanced attention between the final Beringel and the lesser Paladin. Every time the Paladin tried to help its larger brother, Gizmo would capitalize on its lack of focus with a shot from her cannon before repositioning to stay out of range of the Grimm. Her fortune did not last forever, however, and the Beringel caught up just enough to hook Gizmo's leg and trip the MEC frame.

XCOM's operatives reacted immediately. Jump troopers redeployed to Gizmo's position and laid into the gorilla while a team of Engineers threw down covering smoke before pulling out Arc Throwers to assess and repair damage. Snipers picked off the few remaining Knights so that all focus could turn to the major threats.

"Fucker's finally down!"

Cannon fire erupted from the ubermech, followed by Talos's mechanical statement, " _Armor is holding, but I require assistance._ "

" _Repairs completed._ " Gizmo reported, " _I'm on my way._ "

Qrow leapt off of the lesser Paladin and charged its brother alongside the now-back-in-action Gizmo. The two of them weaved around the battered Talos before Qrow jumped up and took hold of Gizmo's grab bar. The MEC crouched into a jet-boosted jump, allowing her huntsman passenger to vault high above his target. A blast from his shotgun sent Qrow plummeting on a crash course with the Paladin as Gizmo landed a kinetic punch to its midsection. Talos took a shot at the robotic behemoth with his particle cannon right before Qrow slammed into it with his sword.

The trio continued the high intensity of their assault, each striking in turn to keep the Paladin confused as to who it should focus on. The robot did score counterhits against its mechanized adversaries, but Talos and Gizmo pushed through the damage in a gamble that their foe would fall before they did. The mech's ally was in no position to offer aid: blossoms of fire and ice erupted around the Paladin, marking Weiss and Winter's assault backed by a detachment of XCOM forces.

When the ubermech took an uneasy step backwards, Gizmo found her opportunity to strike hard. She leaned forward and boosted herself into the unbalanced mech, clipping its shoulder and sending the robot into a frantic effort to stay upright. Talos stomped forward with his kinetic fist primed, and pulled the Paladin into a heavy uppercut. The sound of rending metal echoed across the fairgrounds, and the combatants watched in awe as the giant robot tumbled backwards and fell.

As Qrow ran forward to perform the coup de grace, he heard the soft sound of rapid footfalls not far behind. A quick glance back identified Winter as his companion, and Qrow smirked when he realized that she probably couldn't stand the idea of him taking the 'glory' of landing the killing blow. He slowed down just enough to let the elder Schnee catch up to him before folding his scythe into its sword configuration. The two shared a pointed look that indicated their mutual understanding that, for once, it was in their best interest to cooperate. They leapt in unison, raised their weapons, and drove them deep into the cracked and battered faceplate of the fallen Paladin. The robot sparked and shook in its death throes before finally falling into its eternal rest.

Though the sounds of warfare still echoed across the sky, Qrow's small corner of the war fell silent, if only for a brief moment.

"Not bad for a drunk." Winter remarked, eyebrow raised.

Qrow threw his arms out in a mock gesture of grandeur, "What can I say? It's not easy being this great." He yanked his sword out of the dead monstrosity, pulling a tangled mess of wires and scrap metal with it, "Maybe it's the lack of alcohol ruining my judgment, but I'm almost tempted suggest that we could make a good team."

Winter sheathed her weapon in one smooth motion and walked back to the fairgrounds, "Don't get ahead of yourself."

As Qrow watched his rival rejoin his sister, Talos whispered, " _I think we make a better one._ "

"Probably." Qrow agreed, "Let's get you patched up so we can go work on that teamwork a bit and find more shit to kill."

* * *

The unholy scream of the Grimm dragon soaring overhead marked the arrival of trouble for Lily's squad. She fired the flare gun about a minute prior before returning to the liquor store to hunker down with the rest of the survivors and prepare a defense. Lily had asked Bocephus to bring her the strongest alcohol he could find, and she stuffed ripped segments of her shirt sleeves down the bottlenecks. She briefly explained to Gerald, the survivor in charge of their lighter, how to use a Molotov cocktail before she looked for other ways to repel the impending Grimm.

Any alcohol that she deemed too weak for a Molotov was chucked out the broken front window where the shattered bottles might surprise the barefooted Beowolves and the pooling liquid could serve as a good target for the team's fire master. Two of the other survivors, Killeen and Jyl, emptied beer cans and strung the tabs together to make a few more crude noisemakers. They probably wouldn't distract the Grimm for long, but Lily was ready to take whatever advantage she could get.

"We've got company." Bocephus announced at the window, "Everybody lay low: They haven't seen us yet."

No more time for Arts and Crafts, it seemed. Lily crouched next to Eldric, her hand resting on his back to give him encouragement. The group could hear the Beowolves across the street, snorting and growling as they roamed the city streets. Just as Bocephus said, it looked like the wolves hadn't noticed them. Everyone waited in tense silence until they watched the Grimm disappear around the corner of a building further down the street. Lily sat back and breathed a sigh of relief.

 _Clink. Rattle. Shatter._

Killeen yelped as the shelf she leaned against turned out to be less stable than she originally thought. Her eyes grew wide as the rest of the group snapped around to stare at her in shock.

"I'm… I'm sorry." She whispered. A chorus of howls punctuated her apology.

Bocephus turned to Gerald. "Give Lily a quick light, then get to the roof. Eldric, carry some of these bottles and go with him. Killeen, Jyl… take the whip and pipe and protect the stairs to the roof. Lily, you're with me."

Lily held up her makeshift torch (a soaked strip of cloth tied to the end of a broken piece of rebar) so that Gerald could ignite it with his lighter. She grabbed her bag that held the makeshift grenade as well as a supply of aerosol cans she found abandoned at a small construction site and moved towards the front door with Bocephus.

"I hope your friends are on their way," Bocephus muttered, "Because there's no way we're holding out forever against all of these Grimm."

Lily nodded, "They're the best there is. We won't have to wait long."

The Beowolves came barrelling towards the holdout from around the corner. Bocephus and Lily watched as the demons charged, closing the gap to one hundred yards… fifty yards… thirty yards…

Fire soared overhead as Gerald hurled the first Molotov. It broke as the Grimm crossed the alcohol line, and liquid flame bloomed to life around the liquor store. Bocephus let out a low whistle.

"Gotta say, kid, that's a beautiful sight right there."

Of course, the Beowolves barging across the fiery barrier looked more terrifying than beautiful. The fire and broken glass served its purpose, though: Lily watched as the monsters stumbled forward on legs crippled by burn marks and lacerations.

More cocktails soared from the roof as Gerald continued to pelt the Grimm with firebombs, but the remnants of the first wave managed to still reach the storefront. Bocephus let the first wolf jump through the broken window before he jammed his spear through its neck. The moment it dropped, Lily popped up with her torch and an aerosol can to push back the rest of the Grimm with a pressurized gout of fire.

"These things do _not_ like getting burned." She said with amusement as the Beowolves yelped and stumbled back from the heat, "I bet this is info that Bradford could use."

"Who?" Bocephus asked while he drove his spear through the chest of another monster. He hissed in pain as the Beowolf slashed his bicep before it fell to the floor.

"Bocephus!" Lily cried. She incinerated the last of the wave before dropping to the man's side, "Are you alright?"

Bocephus moved his arm and winced. "Critter got me good. Gonna be a lot harder to stab these guys, that's for sure."

Lily peeked over the windowsill and assessed their situation. Gerald had done a great job setting fire to the Grimm's path towards the holdout. Even so, more Grimm poured into the street and towards the sounds of conflict, and not just Beowolves.

"Hey Bo… how good is your throwing arm?"

"It's not the one that got all torn up." The man answered. He glanced into the street and figured out why Lily had asked, "Prime your bomb for me, and I'll give it a toss."

"You'll have about ten seconds before it blows." She said as she broke the barrier between the two active reagents in the chamber, "Don't cook it in case I'm wrong, though."

Bocephus chucked the grenade, and the duo watched the wave of Ursa loping towards it.

"C'mon…"

"Bo, throw the firecracker."

Lily lit her noisemaker, and Bocephus tossed it into the street. The device detonated with a harmless _bang_ , but it surprised the Ursa enough for them to slow down and glance at the source of the noise...

 _CRUMP_.

… Long enough for the grenade to go off. The Beowolves running past were blasted off their feet, but the bomb seemed to only piss off the Ursa.

"Uhhh…" Bocephus intoned, "That bomb might have been a mistake."

"Yeah…"

Lily readied another aerosol can and threw fire at the oncoming bears, but they seemed to shrug it off more easily than the wolves. She spun out of the way with a shriek as the monsters crashed through the storefront. Shelves upon shelves of alcohol crashed through the floor and quickly ignited from Lily's dropped torch.

"EVERYBODY CLEAR OUT." Bocephus yelled. Lily saw Jyl and Killeen bolt through a side door towards the back of the store while her partner tried to distract the Ursa focused on Lily with a spear to its rump. The monster spun around and backhanded Bocephus through the window and into the street.

"Bo!"

Lily instantly regretted crying out, as it brought the Grimm's attention back to her. She fell to the floor as it took a swipe with its wicked claws. Drywall and wood chips bounced off of her prone form, and Lily watched the monster rise up on its hind legs as it prepared to pulverize her into dust.

The tattered wall exploded, the air shuddered and an acrid smell of ozone penetrated Lily's nostrils. It took her a moment to register the fact that the Ursa standing above her had been completely obliterated. By the time dawning realization hit her brain, the explosive sound of thrusters echoed up the street, and a massive warrior of servo and steel planted itself between Lily and the Grimm approaching from the street.

" _Killing it with fire._ " The ironclad soldier announced. Gouts of flame spewed from its wrist and washed over the demonic foe. The air grew electrified once more as the first MEC's rifle punched a hole clean through one of the wolves closing in on Bocephus, followed by the crack of multiple rifles striking targets of their own.

"H-holy…" The faunus stammered, his eyes glued to the MEC.

A flash of red streaked up the street and dissected a pair of wolves running at the MEC standing over Lily. A young huntress, her eyes aflame with anger and determination, brandished her scythe as she dared any more of the monsters to come forth and taste cold steel.

Her crimson cloak flapped in the heat of the battlefield, with the words _Vigilo Confido_ printed above the most beautiful battle standard Lily had ever laid eyes on. Ruby glanced back at Lily, and the murderous look flipped instantly into cheerful encouragement as the huntress gave a thumbs up before keying her comm.

"Shen is secured." Ruby reported, "Repeat, we have recovered Lily Shen."

* * *

What a mess.

Even with all of Bradford's preparations, the plans he made with the headmaster and the drills his commanding officers orchestrated, this entire operation had become one giant clusterfuck. Even so, if Timmons knew anything about the theater of war, it was that proper communication saved lives.

And Timmons was determined to save lives.

"Strike Six, be advised that sensors are picking up new Grimm activity in your vicinity." Timmons warned.

Fonseca groaned loudly in response, " _Dios mio. Still more?_ "

"Large ones, too."

" _Strike Six. It might be a good idea to abandon Drop Point Foxtrot and relocate somewhere more defensible._ "

" _Any ideas, Central?_ "

Timmons checked his array of motion sensor data feeds while Bradford continued to give instructions.

" _Not Beacon Academy. We don't want to draw undue attention towards Ozpin._ "

Made sense. Besides, Timmons didn't need his motion sensors to tell them that Beacon would be a bad idea. One peek out the window, and he could see the swarm of birds flocking around the tower. What was drawing them all over there, anyway?

" _Start working towards the city. That should make it easier for us to regroup once this is all over._ "

" _Understood, sir. Progress will be slow on account of the civilians we're trying to protect. At least we have huntsmen!_ "

"I think I can help, Actual." Timmons added, as he made a handful of keystrokes on his terminal, "I've collated all of my motion sensor information into a data packet that I'm sending to your HUD now. It should help you plot out the path of least resistance to the city."

" _Muchas gracias, señor!"_

With one problem solved, Timmons continued to cycle through his radio feeds to see where else he could be of assistance.

" _Hoooooly fuck, that dragon is big._ "

" _MECs are having a hard time lining up a good shot at it from this distance. I don't think we want to risk drawing that thing into a direct fight with only a few glancing blows to show for it._ "

Yeah, that dragon needed to be dealt with. It hadn't done much to directly join the fight yet, but the fact that it was literally precipitating Grimm from its wings was creating more than enough problems for XCOM. He continued working through the channels.

"Fours, this is Comms." Timmons hailed, "You have a distress signal originating in your area. Recommend you investigate-"

Timmons froze at the sound of a knock on the door. The radio chatter continued in the background, and the engineer waited to see if he was imagining things.

… Nope. There it was again. Protocol was very clear that scheduled shift changes are suspended indefinitely during live fire situations until the danger is dealt with. And yet, the person on the other side of the door provided the correct knocking pattern to identify himself as a friendly. Then again, nobody reported over comms that they were headed for the dormitory outpost. Timmons of all people would have been advised of the rendezvous.

So who the fuck was standing out there?

Timmons quietly unclipped the Gauss Pistol from its holster and dialed his comm in to Bradford's private emergency channel.

"This is Lance Corporal Hlaine 'Combo' Timmons." The radio tech said at the door, weapon raised, "I need an identifying name, callsign, and strike team, and I need it now."

" _Timmons, what are you doing on this channel?_ "

"You have three seconds to identify yourself before I employ lethal force."

"… _Timmons? What's going on?_ "

"Three…"

Safety off.

"Two…"

Heartbeat raised.

"One."

 _Fwip._

"Gukh?!"

Timmons looked down to see a sword, sleek and crimson like a blood moon, embedded in his abdomen. The door shattered a second later, kicked in by a masked intruder in red and black.

" _Timmons! Report!_ "

The operator cried out as the masked man ripped the sword out of his gut and kicked him to the floor.

"Destroy it all." The man said, his voice deep and angry, "Leave them lost and in the dark."

As other masked soldiers moved past the two and started ripping up XCOM's communication equipment, Timmons could only stare at the man in frozen horror. "Who… are you?"

The intruder glanced down at his victim, and a cruel smile grew on his lips. He raised his sword's sheath, which Timmons now noticed to be a rifle, and leveled it at the radio operator's face.


	21. A Dark Doorway

A/N: Another 10k+ wordcount doozy. I really liked this one, though I struggled with ordering the scenes in a way that gives a coherent-ish timeline.

On a different note, some of you have noted (rightly so) that not only is this battle dragging on for more chapters than it should, but that each one seems to end in Yet Another Cliffhanger. To the first point, I'm gonna be straight with you and admit that I made an XCOM Rookie mistake and lost control of the situation. I had only planned for 2-3 chapters after the fighting started, and then I realized that I left a _lot_ of loose threads dangling in the chapters leading up to BoB. The end result was the creative mess that you have all borne witness to.

To the second point, I think it's more of a push-pull relationship between the good dudes and the bad dudes. Each chapter has XCOM & Friends achieving critical victories (evacuating Amity, recovering rogue!Penny, securing the fairgrounds, rescuing Lily), but the forces of evil aren't taking this laying down. I'd like to think that all of their chapter-ending victories have been at least somewhat hinted at rather than coming completely out of left field, but I'll be the first to admit that I'm still learning how to craft an engaging story without resorting to some cheap asspulls (But that's where I rely on you guys to keep me honest!). In short, I want RWBYCOM to be the the team of Big Guddam Heroes that they are, but I also want the villains to have some teeth. Whether I do a good job of that or not is up to the judgement of you, the reader, but I hope the ride is at least enjoyable regardless of your conclusion.

Anyway, that's enough from me for now. Onto the chapter.

* * *

The lobby leading into Beacon Tower was deafeningly quiet, a stark contrast to the chaos that Ren and Nora left behind only moments before. A lot had happened in the time it took for them to reach Beacon, thanks in no small part to the fact that the large swarm of birds circling the upper levels of the tower forced their Icarus detachment to touch down far sooner than expected. Fighting towards the tower by ground allowed the huntsmen to clear a path through the monsters while Annette and the pilots kept Shen safe.

"So the bad guys have dragons on their side?" Nora mused. With the last of the defeated Grimm slowly evaporating behind her, she idly twirled her hammer and stepped into the massive tower with the rest of her team, "Why don't we get a… uh… a… wow, holy shit."

The lobby, though dimly-lit, offered enough light for Nora, Ren, and their companions to bear witness to the macabre aftermath of the battle that had taken place sometime after the fighting broke out. Bodies and limbs were strewn everywhere with blood sprayed against the floor and walls. A water main must have broken somewhere along one of the halls, as Ren could hear the pressurized fluid spraying freely out of its metal confines. Several video screens flickered on and off in the waiting area, providing intermittent life to multiple reporters' voices as they gave disjointed accounts of tonight's unfolding madness. The smell of weaponized Dust drifted past Ren through the open doorway, and he took some small comfort in knowing that the tower's security put up some semblance of a fight.

Jaune walked up behind them with a quick "What's the hold up?" before taking one look at the scene and promptly spinning around to settle his stomach on the steps outside.

"I've seen some bad shit on Earth," Annette commented as she joined the group in the foyer, "But this is pretty close to the top of the list."

Eightball grunted his agreement, "Doc, you should probably stick with the major while our vanguard sniffs out danger. Whatever the fuck did this might still be around."

While the group examined the lobby, Ren couldn't shake the feeling that this wasn't normal. He was familiar with Grimm slaughter, more so than he'd care to admit, but even this was a step above anything he'd ever seen. Arms with flesh chewed to the bone... faces frozen in terror with their eyes gouged out… Grimm were killers, not torturers.

"Nothing but bodies and trashed equipment over here." Jaune called out from the left, "There's a lot of them, though. How busy was this place when the fighting started?"

"When is the CCT ever not busy?" Pyrrha asked, sorrow behind her words, "All these bullet holes and residual dust patches weren't shot for fun."

"Maybe the good guys won, and nobody's here anymore because the security evacuated all of the survivors." Nora speculated, but her tone betrayed the fact that she didn't believe her own words. With the rest of his team vocalizing their theories, Ren silently tried to make heads or tails of the spectacle laid out before them. What had taken place here? What had incited such grisly behavior in an already vicious foe? Did the victims die quickly? Before Ren could get too deep in thought about that last question,, a familiar voice greeted them.

" _Ah, it appears that my backup has arrived. Hello, everyone._ "

"Headmaster?" Nora asked, stopping dead in her tracks and looking around in confusion, "Do you have cameras set up in here or something?"

" _An astute observation, Miss Valkyrie._ " Ozpin said, " _One can never be too careful with the security of something as important as Beacon Tower._ "

Wait... in that case… "Does that mean you saw what happened in the lobby?"

A short silence followed Ren's question before Ozpin finally answered with, " _I believe have a lot of work to do, and not much time to do it._ "

That… did nothing to assuage Ren's fears. Did Ozpin really watch the whole slaughter without lifting a finger to help? Or did he intervene and prevent the lobby from looking even worse than it already did?. Even though the headmaster's answer didn't do much to help the ominous feeling slowly growing in Ren's gut, he decided to follow Ozpin's lead and worry about the business at hand for now. The sooner they could wrap things up here, the sooner Ren could return to XCOM's aid in the main fight.

Pyrrha seemed to agree, "Just tell us what you need, and we'll get it done."

The elevator doors opened on the far side of the room. " _First thing's first, miss Nikos. I think it's safe to say that the good Doctor has some very pressing matters to attend to. If you'll all step into the elevator and take it up to my office… Nora, Ren? Would you mind waiting in the lobby? I have a different task for you two once the elevator returns._ "

"Creeeepyyyyyy…" Nora said muttered as the rest of the landing party entered the elevator and the doors shut. Once this was all over, Ren _really_ needed to have a long conversation with Ozpin about presentation. Or maybe this was all a game to him? No, the headmaster may be a bit weird, but he didn't lack empathy. Surely he was aware of all the carnage happening tonight, especially since he had front-row seats to the massacre that unfolded right here in his own tower. Ren took the opportunity to glance around the room some more in hopes of catching something that he had previously missed.

" _I apologize for all the cloak and dagger business._ " Ozpin said, cutting into Ren's thoughts, " _But I think that tonight's events are evidence enough that our enemies are listening everywhere._ "

Then why announce that Shen's team was headed to his office? I guess it didn't really matter. Anyone with half a brain would probably think to sweep that room first.

Ren opted for a diplomatic response, as usual. "I understand, sir. With respect, though, I think a bit more openness would be helpful in the future, now that the enemy has come out of the shadows."

" _You'll find no argument from me._ "

The elevator doors opened, and Ren stepped in with his partner and approached the lift panel. Where would he be going with Nora? To the CCTS comm center? That was probably important enough to warrant sending in a huntsmen team to secure. To his surprise, Ren felt the elevator shutter ever-so-slightly before moving _down._

"This is weirding me out." Nora whispered to her partner. Ren nodded in agreement. He trusted Ozpin, but the idea of dropping into some mysterious subterranean structure that the headmaster had taken the time to deck out with video feeds, secret entrances, and who knows what other security measures… How important was this thing? Important enough for Bradford to dispatch two valuable assets that could have otherwise helped significantly in the fight above. Ren remembered Ruby mentioning something about a meeting between Ozpin, Bradford, and Ironwood where Ruby and Weiss were asked to leave. Did Ozpin show the Central Officer the same thing that he was about to show Ren?

" _I'm not sure how compromised this tower is,_ " Ozpin said, pulling Ren out of his thoughts, " _And I'm not sure how much_ she _is watching, but I doubt there's any harm in directing you to leave the elevator when it opens and follow the hallway until-_ "

The elevator lurched to an abrupt halt, with Ozpin's audio feed cutting out in an equally sudden fashion, and Ren steadied himself against Nora. The two partners shared a concerned glance before a muted chorus of screeching Grimm echoed through their mechanical prison.

* * *

Shen moved swiftly into Ozpin's office the moment the elevator door opened with a pleasant _ding_. The Chief Engineer wasted no time at all as he took a seat at Ozpin's desk and booted up the terminal. His security detail followed and spread out to have eyes on all angles of the room and the surrounding sky. That swarm of Griffons remained swirling around the tower, though they seemed to take no notice of the new arrivals in the glass-walled office. Beyond the flock, Jaune could catch glimpses of the dragon flying over the city.

With the office properly secured, Annette took a moment to take in the tower's unique panoramic vantage of Beacon and Vale with a low whistle. "Damn, if being the headmaster of a school means you get to have this sort of view on a daily basis, then sign me the fuck up."

"Are you referring to the landscape, or the fighting that's breaking out all over it?" Jaune asked.

"I'm not sure I appreciate your sass, Arc."

"It is beautiful, in its own way." Pyrrha interrupted, "The fighting, I mean. Even in the midst of overwhelming darkness, we fight back. As we've always done, and as we always will."

"Truer words were never spoken." Shen added, his tone slightly absentminded as his attention remained fixed on the computer screen. He pulled a small device out of his breast pocket and clipped it into the terminal.

Annette raised an eyebrow. "You look like you've, uh… been here before, Doc. On several occasions."

"That would be correct, Major." Shen said, his fingers tapping and swiping the computer's haptic interface. The holographic readouts on the array of screens moved by faster than Annette could make sense of, which only raised more questions about how much time Shen had spent playing around in Ozpin's office over the past few days.

The Doctor's antics seemed to have tickled Pyrrha's curiosity as well. "Is that virus giving you trouble? I recall hearing chatter over comms that it was hindering Vahlen's ability to keep control over Amity."

"My associate was dealing with software and hardware that she had very little familiarity with, and found herself in a situation where she was woefully unprepared on account of us trying to make nice with Atlas." Shen answered tersely, "I suffer from no such setbacks."

Now that Annette had a moment to think about it, Shen _was_ pretty quiet over the last couple of days. Sure, he put in a lot of work on the communications project, but all the help he received on that from Vahlen, MacAuley, and Ozpin's staff meant that he wasn't devoting all of his time to getting the comms running. And if Annette highly doubted that Shen would spend his spare time playing Civ.

The scene playing out before her wasn't as ridiculous as a film's representation of 'hacking' from the late 90's with keystrokes at 100 WPM and lines of code scrolling across the screen faster than they eye could follow. Shen's motions were as calculated as they were swift, and he paused for a moment before every swipe and stroke to be sure that it was exactly what he needed to do to achieve his objective. The fire in his eye and the faint feeling of rage Annette could passively detect from his psyche gave the operative all the clues she needed to understand exactly what was driving him forward with such purpose.

The rest of the squad also picked up on the sense that now wasn't the time for banter, and let the engineer work in peace. The silence was short-lived, however, as XCOM radio banter started to stream into the office.

" _Shot are hitting the target sir, but we are reporting minimal damage. Jaegers are shifting armaments to MAC configuration._ "

" _More Atlas mechs are assaulting the fairgrounds. Strike Six is holding thanks to additional huntsmen support._ "

" _Icarus squad, Delta team reporting: lots of civilians trapped in the city. We're coordinating with our pilots and Atlesian security forces to rescue as many as possible._ "

" _Strike Four reporting operative down! We've got more of those gorilla bastards entering the city!_ "

" _Odin has arrived to reinforce the Skysnipers. We might have a shot at bringing this bastard down after all._ "

The chatter continued, and it didn't take a prodigy to guess what specific bit of news Shen was listening for as he continued his work. Speaking of his work…

"Doctor, how are we looking right now? With the whole 'deactivate the bots' thing."

"Making steady progress." Shen answered, "I've already established that the signal is not coming from the tower, and with some assistance from the relay station's on-duty comms tech, I'm close to isolating the rogue cruiser's signal that is the likely culprit for the hack."

Annette nodded. "Great. And when that's done?"

"Then our work here should be concluded."

"Actually," Jaune cut in, "I have an idea that might be useful if we have time after you're done. Do you think you could rig up an out-bound signal blast from this room?"

Shen stopped typing for a moment to stare blankly at Jaune, "You need to practice a little more with your technobabble, Lieutenant."

Pyrrha seemed to understand what her partner meant and clarified, "A message, Doctor. Would it be possible for you to send out a radio message from here?"

The Chief Engineer paused for a moment to consider the question before he answered with a quick, "I believe so."

" _Shen is secured._ " And just like that, the Chief Engineer's attention snapped immediately back to his work terminal, " _Repeat, we have recovered Lily Shen._ "

Silence, and then a choked sob of relief sputtered out of Shen's throat as he threw his glasses to the desk and fell back into Ozpin's chair. Images and characters continued to update on the screen, but the old man paid them no mind while he allowed himself a brief moment to savor the knowledge that he hadn't lost his one and only daughter.

The moment was short-lived, however.

" _Operative Polendina reporting! Skysnipers ready to lau-_ "

Shen sat up in his seat at the sound of the radio feed cutting out mid-sentence. He pulled up several metrics and readouts on the terminal, before realization of what happened started to set in.

"No…" He whispered, his fingers moving frantically across the keys, "No, no no no _no!_ "

"Doctor!"

"Lily!" Shen croaked, his fingers slamming into the terminal interface as he fought to fix the unfixable, "Give me back my Lily, you goddamn machine!"

"She's going to be fine!" Pyrrha tried to assure the distraught engineer, "No matter what happened to the signal, XCOM has your daughter. She's _safe_."

Shen didn't seem to hear Pyrrha as he continued his efforts to fix the signal. Out of the corner of her eye, Pyrrha saw Annette fall into one of her psionic trances, presumably to try and comfort Shen's mind from within. The rest of the team watched in silence, unsure of what to do. They were here specifically to keep the Doctor safe, since he was the only one technically skilled enough to carry out the counter-signal mission. If Annette couldn't get through to him, what else could be done but wait?

Jaune's hand snapped up to his ear, "I read you, sir… Yes, sir… Yes… Understood… I'll notify you if our situation changes."

He looked up to see all eyes staring at him intently. "Comms are down for everyone. Instructions are getting routed through the Temple Ship at the moment, under Commander Van Doorn's coordination. Central has dispatched an engineering team to try to fix the situation, but… Van Doorn didn't sound too confident."

Silence fell over the room, followed by Dr. Shen letting out a deep sigh. He reached for his glasses to clean them with his shirt, stared at the constant stream of scrolling information in front of him, and finally put on his spectacles and resumed typing in his previously calm and deliberate manner.

"Lily's as safe as one can be in this mess." Shen muttered,"The least I can do is try to make it safer."

* * *

"Timmons!" Bradford barked, "Timmons, do you copy?"

Nothing. No Timmons, no asshole breaking into the comm center, no static…

No static?

Oh. Oh, that couldn't be good. Bradford switched to the channel used by the Fairgrounds team.

"Strike Six, this is Central, do you copy?"

Sounds of battle raged behind him as XCOM and Ironwood's forces sought to regain control of the city, but Bradford's radio was very, very dark..

"Otter? Otter, this is Central. Acknowledge."

"Boss?" Bradford looked up to see a pair of operatives approach, a passed out Lily Shen in the arms of one, "We've got the kid, but… are comms working for you? We're getting total radio silence."

"It's not just you, soldier. Comms are definitely down, although…" Bradford patched his radio to the old channel used in the early days of XCOM's Terran-Valean communications, "Commander, this is Central. Pete, please tell me you're receiving this."

A moment of silence, then, " _Loud and clear, sir. Comms dropped off across the board, and we have no idea why._ "

"Someone found our relay station." Bradford explained, "Timmons had the wherewithal to hail me so I could listen to some jackass come barging in and order his goons to tear up the place before everything went quiet."

"Sounds like you need a recon team, then." Bradford looked over to see Blake and Yang approach. Their faces were slick with sweat and grime, but they showed no signs of fatigue from the battle.

Bradford smiled, "It sounds like you're offering."

"Does the Pope shit in the woods?"

"... Do you even know who the Pope is?"

"Nope."

"Give me a minute with The General, then we can plan out our next move." Bradford said, shaking his head in bemused exasperation as he keyed his comm once again.

"Pete, I need you to work through the list of active officers we have deployed right now and inform them that all comms are now routed through the Temple Ship. We've got a lot of moving parts down here, and it's all going to get thrown to hell if we don't regain some semblance of coordination within the next couple of minutes."

" _Understood, sir. We've got all hands on deck at Mission Control, so it shouldn't take long. I'll personally relay any and all information intended for you, as well as keep you appraised of other critical developments._ "

"Thank you, Commander. I know it must be difficult for you to be relegated to a backline role like this…"

" _But rules exist for a reason. I understand, sir. Van Doorn out._ "

Bradford turned to Blake and Yang. "Now let's get to the matter of our little comm problem."

By this point, several other operatives had circled up around Bradford, curious to hear what Bradford had planned to deal with their unexpected communication issue.

"We need to figure out what the hell just happened to our comms, and how to get them back online. I'm dispatching you with operatives Samuelson and Mtambe, and a small combat escort. Get to the relay ASAP and try to salvage the situation." Bradford glanced at Blake, "And if you happen to run across whoever caused this, feel free to show them our hospitality on behalf of Corporal Timmons."

The two huntresses, along with their new squad, snapped a salute to the Central Officer, "Yes sir."

"I'll work with Vahlen on our end to try and find an alternative solution to the problem. If these saboteurs were thorough, Mtambe and Sam might not be able to repair the waystation as quickly as we need." Bradford rubbed his temples and let out a stressed sigh, "I know the Doctors were playing around with the idea of adapting the Odin into a mobile signal booster. Hopefully they made more progress on that little project than they've told me about."

Yang nodded. "At the very least, you can count on us to get the comm center secured."

"I know." Bradford said with a weary smile, "You're XCOM, after all. You best get to it, Sergeant. And Godspeed."

* * *

"That doesn't sound good." Ren said, pistols swiftly appearing in his hands.

"You're telling me." Nora whined, "Hammers aren't that great in confined spaces."

"Then we'll need to find a way to get out of here, and quickly."

Another series of screeches and howls from below punctuated Ren's point. He could ask Nora to punch a hole through the floor, but what good would that do, really? They had no idea how much further they had to go before the reached the bottom of the shaft (if their destination _was_ the bottom), and Ren worried that his partner's lack of finesse would end up blowing out the entire floor of the elevator rather than create a surgical opening.

He had to do something, though, and the only other options were 'the door they came through' and 'up.'

"Nora, give me a boost so I can reach that ceiling panel, then see if you can pry open that door. We might be lucky and the elevator stopped at another floor."

"Right." Nora crouched low, and Ren deftly hopped up onto her shoulders. The extra height boost once his partner stood up straight allowed Ren to easily reach the ceiling, and he sliced open the panel hinges with a flick of his blade. He pushed aside the broken pane and leapt from Nora's shoulders to the outside of the elevator box and took the opportunity to assess his new, dimly lit surroundings while Nora got to work on the main door. The first thing to catch his eye was the distinct lack of doors dotting the wall of the shaft. As he craned his neck upwards, Ren couldn't even see the doors that opened up to the lobby that they came from.

Just how far down were they supposed to go?

The concrete wall of the shaft started to fracture twenty feet above Ren's head and off to his right.

"Nora, forget about the door. I need you up here with me."

Loud static poured into the elevator from its speakers several seconds after Nora joined Ren on the roof.

" _Zzzzzzdon't mean tozzzzzzzsooner rathzzzzzzzzzould be preferzzzzzzzzz._ "

The fracture continued to grow along the shaft, spreading to the other two adjoining walls and causing small chunks of concrete to trickle down and collide with the elevator. The next chorus of hellish screams reached the huntsmen from above as well as below. Their options, Ren realized, were rapidly dwindling. He peered through the open panel, took a moment to consider the best course of action, and made his choice. He aimed his pistol through the access panel and systematically unloaded the entire magazine into the floor.

"Nora, grenade."

His partner quickly caught on to his plan, shifted Magnhild into its launcher form, and pulled the trigger. The elevator box shuddered from the kinetic force of Nora's explosion, but the damaged floor blew out in the circular pattern that Ren had created. The serrated metal fell away to reveal a writhing mass of subterranean Grimm crawling their way up towards the elevator from the depths below, their beady red eyes staring through the darkness at the elevator and its cargo.

Well, at least they'll soften the fall.

"Hang onto something." Ren muttered. As the concrete above them finally gave way to the first Creep, Ren threw all of his strength into cutting loose the elevator cable. It broke with a _snap_ , and Ren cried out as the taught wire sliced his arm when it whipped free. Nora grabbed him with her free arm and held him tightly against the top of the elevator as the metal box began to plummet towards rock bottom. The Grimm hordes did their job and slowed the car's fall considerably, though the metal creaked and complained under the unusual forces and stresses. More Grimm fell from above and crashed into the rooftop next to the two partners only to be met with a swift hammer to the face that sent them crashing into the wall as it whizzed by.

Ren stole a peek through the hole in the floor and saw the floor of the elevator shaft rushing up to meet them.

"Jump!" He yelled. The duo leapt off of the elevator, and Ren dug his weapons into the concrete as Nora latched onto his waist. The elevator crashed into the basement in a mass of twisted metal, and the two students dropped down shortly thereafter. Nora blasted open the broken elevator doors with a mighty swing of her hammer, and they raced out into the hallway where they could use the wider space to their advantage.

" _Zzzzzzeep moving, pleazzzzzzime is of thezzzzzzzz._ "

More Creeps burrowed up from below, and all manner of Grimm spewed forth from their tunnels. Beowolves, Lesser Taijitu, Ursa, and strange variants that Ren didn't recognize crawled out of the new gopher holes and swarmed the hallway.

"I don't know what's down here." Nora said as she pancaked another monster beneath her hammer, "But it's sure got these guys all riled up."

"Whatever it is, Ozpin will know." Ren answered, ducking under the swipe of an Ursa and splitting open its belly.

"Yeah, but is he going to tell us?"

Good point. Still, they had a job to do, and Ren wasn't about to quit because Ozpin didn't give him all the details. The two of them raced down the hall, with Nora's explosive strikes sending earthquakes through the mysterious cavern every few seconds. They quickly fell into a pattern whereby Nora would land a devastating blow that leveled all of the lesser Grimm and staggered the stronger ones, which allowed Ren to use his surgical precision to assassinate (or cripple) the sturdy elites.

Up ahead, Ren saw flashes of green light that could only mean one thing.

"We're close."

Nora shot a grenade into one of the gopher holes as they ran forward. "You know, it just occurred to me… has anyone ever seen the headmaster fight?"

"Goodwitch probably has." Ren guessed, "But you've got an interesting point."

The hall rumbled once again and Nora giggled as her explosive detonated. "I never get tired of using Elerium."

At the end of the hallway, the students bore witness to the incredible sight of Ozpin locked in combat. He just… flowed. Smoother than water, he danced from one enemy to the next. His cane didn't look particularly powerful, but Ren deduced that the headmaster didn't need to put power behind each strike when there were _so many_ crammed into each second. Everyone from XCOM used to mention how Ren 'fought like a goddamn ninja,' but even his peak form couldn't match Ozpin's skill. Broad, sweeping strokes followed up with a flurry of jabs before a blast of energy sent the headmaster skidding towards his next victim. Because he put very little power behind each attack, Ren guessed that Ozpin could maintain this cadence for a very long time.

The rule of large numbers won out in the end, however, as the sheer number of Grimm surging forward meant that one lucky Beowolf managed to get close enough to land a swipe on the headmaster's back. Ozpin didn't cry out, nor did he flinch, and instead he whipped around so fast that Ren struggled to track his movements. The cane, despite it's blunt nature, tore into the monster from one end and ripped free on the other.

"By all means, students, feel free to join me." Ozpin quipped as he returned to his martial flow, "I promise I won't turn down your offer of assistance."

Ren nodded, silently chiding himself for getting entranced by the headmaster's display of combat mastery. "Of course, sir. Any other instructions?"

Ozpin bludgeoned another Beowolf into submission before answering, "Keep them away from the back wall. The technology back there must be protected at all costs. Nora, I believe we can best use your skills to thin out the horde as they approach."

"Absolutely!"

Under any other circumstances, Ren wondered how three huntsmen could possibly last for an indeterminate amount of time against wave after wave of Grimm. After seeing Ozpin fight, however, Ren realized that this was far from a typical circumstance. Even so, the Grimm threw themselves against the defenders will all the bloodthirsty determination humanity had come to expect from creatures of darkness. Nora conserved her explosives to maximize their impact and instead elected to use her raw strength to sail across the battlefield and plow into the sea of Grimm. At every chance he could get, Ren would supercharge his partner with the arc thrower attachments provided to him by Vahlen and Shen. He stayed back with Ozpin to pick off the Grimm that slipped past his partner, leaving the headmaster to take down the vast majority while he once again focused on the hardier targets.

A familiar voice buzzed in Ren's ear, " _Sergeant, this is Mission Control. Radio communications have been restored, and all operatives are able to resume using their devices as normal. Please direct all new intel through regular channels and not those specifically keyed to Mission Control._ "

"Comms are up." Ren announced to his team.

Gopher holes continued to crop up until the hallway became a pockmarked landscape of ruined concrete and churned earth. Even so, the steady pacing of the huntsmen team coupled with the surge of morale in the face of Ozpin's inspiring power allowed them to hold their position without succumbing to fatigue.

Of course, Ren's confidence took a downward turn when a low-hanging mist started to flow out of the gopher holes with the latest wave of Grimm. If the accompanying sinister laughter that echoed through the hall failed to erase Ren's confidence entirely, Ozpin's comment did the trick.

"No..."

* * *

"Done."

Pyrrha turned away from the window view of the battle below and looked over at Shen. His eyes remained glued to the console's holographic display, but his fingers remained motionless as he monitored the fruits of his labor.

"Did you manage to disable the mechs?" She asked while she walked over to stand behind the doctor and look over his shoulder. On the other side of the room, Annette keyed her comm piece to relay the news to Mission Control.

"'Disrupt the malicious programming' would be more accurate." Shen corrected, "But yes… for the most part. It's not a perfect block, unfortunately. I was able to identify that the signal did in fact originate from the rogue cruiser, but I do not have the time to zero in on the signal's exact frequency channel, as my intrusion countermeasures to defend against the Black Queen will not hold out forever. However, the effectiveness of the static blast is roughly ninety percent uptime with only ten percent down, so the mechs are effectively crippled as they try to parse their conflicting instructions."

Jaune joined Pyrrha at the headmaster's desk, "And the cruiser itself?"

Shen shook his head, "Still in control of whoever hijacked it in the first place. My signal is little more than a disruptor, Sergeant: it is incapable of giving me even read access to the ship's systems, much less overwrite authority."

"Oh."

Annette strode over to the group, "New instructions from Bradford. Now that we've dealt with the mech issue, we have resources available to modify the region's largest radio tower to restore communication capabilities to our operatives."

"I was actually planning to investigate that possibility once I had finished assessing the results of my first task." Shen answered. He leaned forward in his seat and resumed typing at the console, "Given that we're already engaged in face-to-face combat with the Queen's forces, there's little point in trying to mask our presence anymore. It shouldn't be too difficult."

"Any possibility of getting that message out?" Jaune asked, "The one we discussed earlier."

Shen nodded wordlessly. Jaune, Pyrrha, and Annette exchanged glances while the Chief Engineer worked. Who would deliver the message? Annette could be the face of a new ally for the people of Remnant, letting them know that help was on the way and working to restore peace to their besieged world. Jaune, in full battle gear enhanced by his semblance, could project an image of strength and hope to people fearfully wondering who or what was seeking to cause so much wanton mayhem. Or Pyrrha, the star huntress that many people already knew, could use her fame to to provide assurance to those watching that they were in good hands.

"Communication protocols accessed." Shen announced, "The Black Queen is working to corrupt my control, but it's not as intense as before."

"Perhaps she is occupied with something else?" Annette suggested.

"It is likely. In any case, I have relayed the necessary information to Mission Control for them to pass down to our Strike Teams. Long range communications should resume in less than a minute." Shen looked up at his guardians, "Have you decided on a message?"

"It should be Pyrrha." Annette said, "XCOM is too much of an unknown wild card for us to be sure that a message from me would be well-received."

Pyrrha nodded resolutely. As much as she hated the limelight and didn't relish the idea of using her star power once again, this would likely be the single most important message she delivered to a worldwide audience. She knew how to put on a mask and deliver the speech she wanted, but she would be using those talents to prevent a global panic outbreak instead of trying to push some unhealthy cereal. She had to do this.

But what to say? Starting with her name would certainly be an effective way to command the attention of those watching. From there, she would just have to find the right words to replace their fear with hope.

"Short-range comms are live." Shen reported before gesturing to Pyrrha, "It will be another few minutes before I am ready for your broadcast, but you'll have to stand behind the desk once we are live."

A rumble shook the tower, and the room's occupants froze while they tried to determine the source of the tremor.

"We might need to get this done sooner rather than later." Annette muttered, "Pilots, I want you to get prepped to make a quick evac with the Doctor if need be."

Eightball snapped a quick salute before starting the process of fitting and double-checking Shen's harness equipment while the Chief Engineer tried to work in spite of the distraction.

"Sergeant Nikos?" Shen called to Pyrrha, "The console isn't configured for transmission yet, but we should at least record your message. Over here, if you please."

Pyrrha nodded and stepped behind Shen at the desk. He made one last keystroke before moving out of the way and allowing Eightball to finish his pre-flight check. "My dear, you'll be recording the moment that light on the hologram switches from red to green."

Pyrrha closed her eyes, breathed in deep, and slipped on that old, familiar mask. Pyrrha knew she only had one shot at this: there wouldn't be time for a re-take if she messed up. She had her smile (assuring, but not overly-exuberant) fixed and ready by the time the light indicator changed colors.

"People of Remnant, I am Pyrrha Nikos, and I stand before you with an important message."

So far so good. Pyrrha almost felt surprised at how easily she remembered how to use her interview voice. Good thing, too, because the hard part of actually comforting the populace came next.

"As I am certain you are already aware, the Vytal Festival has suffered a catastrophic attack. We are not sure who the instigators are, and we do not yet know their motives. It would be unfair of me to tell you that everything is fine, and that you have no need to be concerned. That would be a disservice to you and the gravity of the situation." With practiced motions, she slipped her facial expression into something more serious, "But what I can tell you is that we have an international coalition working both tirelessly and heroically to do everything they can to keep you safe. Huntsmen and huntresses from the four Kingdoms have recognized that this is not simply a matter of Valean national security, but a crisis that demands that all people of Remnant must stand together to face it. We will fight shoulder-to-shoulder, back-to-back to fend off the Grimm, and we will find out who caused this so that we may bring this horrific chapter to a conclusive end."

Now comes the magic. With a wide, sweeping gesture, Pyrrha summoned her two oldest companions, Milo and Akouo, to her hands and struck a confident pose that she used so many times during photo ops. It wasn't ridiculously over-the-top, but easily conveyed the message of quiet power that she had learned to perfect after countless hours of practicing in the mirror.

"It is fitting that these criminals chose to strike during the Vytal Festival. Clearly they hoped to send a message that there can be no peace between our Kingdoms, but that could not be further from the truth. Even if we come from different corners of the world, each rich with its own history and culture, we are all citizens of Remnant, working together to survive against a foe that cares not of lineage nor nationality. Despite our differences, big or small, we always come together to protect each other during the darkest of nights so that we, our friends, and our family may yet live to see the next dawn. So it has always been, and so it will always be.

"Do not be ashamed if you are afraid. Fear is the most basic of instincts that helps us survive. And though you may remind yourself that fear is what feeds the Grimm, you must also remind yourself of this: you are not alone. Remember that there are men and women ready to put themselves between you and harm at a moment's notice because it is everyone's right to feel a sense of safety and hope in the face of adversity. We will do what we must, not for glory or recognition, but because it is right. And we will bring an almighty fury down upon the Grimm to drive them back into the darkness from whence they came, and to where they belong."

The elevator quietly dinged from the back of the room, to reveal a woman wearing a scarlet dress and a cocky smirk as she brought her hands together in a slow clap. The XCOM operatives formed up around Shen and three rifles locked onto the newcomer.

"I must say, you are quite the speech-maker, my little Nikos." She casually stepped out of the elevator and into the room with five armed hostiles as calmly as if she were entering a daycare, "And as much as the world deserves to hear such… eloquence, I think you and I both know that I cannot let that happen."

* * *

Yang dispatched the last Beowolf with a yell and a bang, allowing her strike team to proceed once more towards Beacon. Thanks to the Icarus equipment, the team managed to easily scale the cliffs overlooking the rest of Vale and proceed towards the school itself. The long journey from the docks to the dormitories stretched out before them, however, and filled with friend, foe, craters, and flame. The huntresses and operatives did their best to rescue nearby civilians cornered by Grimm or otherwise trapped by the destruction of war, but every corner they rounded seemed to reveal yet another poor soul in need of saving.

"We're never going to make it to the comm room at this rate." Blake noted, "As much as I hate to say it, we can probably save more lives by getting communications up between Strike Teams than we can trying to rescue these people."

While the notion was undeniably cruel, Yang couldn't deny the truth in her partner's words. A cornered child here or a trapped woman there… it paled in comparison to the people getting rounded up and moved to XCOM's established safe zone. If that perimeter fell to the Grimm because of no coordination with Bradford's other fire teams, the death toll would be horrifying. Even as the lesser of two evils, however, Yang still hated the idea of abandoning those in need.

"Leave it to us." Yang looked back at the operatives sent to escort them to the comm room. The squad couldn't afford to let the two engineers peel off, but the others were only sent for their additional firepower. Yang knew she could could keep the engineers safe with only Blake for backup.

Her partner seemed to agree.

"Go get 'em, Nitro." Blake said, "But remember to keep yourselves safe first and foremost."

"Just get the comms back online so we can shout for help if we need to, alright?" The soldiers snapped a salute before they pulled a hard left and shot into the air towards the nearest citizen in need of assistance. Two more jump jets fired, and the engineers landed next to their huntress escort. Despite taking a bad hit during the battle on Amity, Yang noted that Mtambe showed no signs of struggling to keep up. The Icarus jets continued to glow, their slow burn lightening the load carried by the engineers so that they could keep pace with the running huntresses.

"Contacts ahead." Blake warned. Bullets zipped towards the Grimm as Blake and Yang dashed forward to meet them head-on. More wolves spilled out from the sides, and the engineers switched their focus to keep the newcomers at bay while the huntresses cleared a path forward.

"Grenade out." The familiar beeping of a plasma grenade echoed above the howls of the hungry monsters before the explosive detonated with a loud _crump_. Yang crushed the face of her latest victim and glanced back to see that Samuelson's well-placed grenade toss left only a handful of Grimm chasing them from behind. Not enough to merit using one of her few remaining devastator rockets.

"We can outrun them, Sergeant." Mtambe said, pulling out his sidearm and popping off a couple of backward shots at the Grimm, "Unless the wolves have suddenly learned how to fly."

With the main part of campus looming ahead, Yang knew her partner could identify a number of alternative routes to the dorms that would allow the team to lose their Beowolf tail.

"Take that colonnade and jump over to the rooftop at the end." Blake instructed, "We can hop down to the small bridge connecting to the next building, which will put us right in front of our target after a quick sprint down the hall. Yang, alley oop."

Blake split Gambol Shroud and tossed the hook to Yang while the two engineers jetted up to the tall column structure. The black ribbon grew taught as Yang swung around her partner to build up speed while Blake anchored herself and braced for the throw. Yang kicked off from the floor and let momentum whip her towards the top of the colonnade. She hit the marble at a run, still holding Blake's pistol so that her partner could use the tether to swing herself up a few seconds later. She watched the Grimm try to climb up the columns, and discovered with immense satisfaction that a single blast from Ember Celica was enough to knock the vulnerable monsters off their posts and send them tumbling to the floor.

Yang secured the ribboned pistol to her waist and the team continued their run forward. Up ahead, the engineers jumped to the next building and disappeared as they ran across the roof. To her surprise, Yang heard the sound of rifles chattering almost immediately.

"Zzzzz _olves! Recommenzzzzz-_ "

While XCOM's communications were shot to hell, short-ranged radio still worked… barely. Dirty signals and distress calls clogged up the common bandwidths, and adjusting the comm pieces wasn't exactly something most operatives knew how to do intuitively. The engineers accompanying Blake and Yang could have probably rigged their equipment to get it working better, but they didn't have the luxury of time to do it. Even so, Yang could take a guess at what had caused the disruption. Nothing Team Bumblebee couldn't handle.

The huntresses swung into view of what had sparked Mtambe's disjointed warning: a nest of Beowolves had taken up residence on the rooftop, with the splatters of blood everywhere painting a pretty clear picture of what drew them to the roof in the first place. Samuelson was up against a metal vent, his pant leg slashed open as an Alpha Beowolf loomed over him.

Yang's shotgun gauntlet echoed across the roof, and the explosive shot connected with the side of the Beowolf's head and grabbed its attention.

"Blake, grab Sam and get him out of here while I cover you guys."

The two huntresses leapt into action, with Yang exploding towards the encroaching wolves while Blake shadowstepped towards the wounded engineer.

"Thanks." Samuelson muttered as Blake pulled him up onto his good leg, "Fucker took me by surprise."

"Hurry up over there!" Yang called out, "There's more of these than I thought!"

"Can you still use your jump pack?" Blake asked as she half-carried Sameulson to the edge of the roof.

"Landing's gonna be a bitch," Samuelson sighed, "But it's better than being dog food."

" _FUCK_!" Yang cried angrily, "Oh, you're gonna pay for that!"

Blake glanced back to see Yang staring down the alpha that had cornered Samuelson, one hand clutching the side of her face while the other balled into a white-hot fist.

"Let's go. Yang can handle this." Blake said.

Samuelson raised an eyebrow, "You sure?"

The look Blake gave him convinced the engineer to fire up his jet pack and launch towards the next building where Mtambe waited for them. Samuelson grunted in pain as he landed on a bridge connected the two structures, and Blake continued to help him forward as the sounds of shotgun blasts and vulgarities echoed from above.

Blake checked her supplies, Samuelson patched himself up, and Mtambe took the chance to fiddle with their short-range comms while they waited for Yang to catch up. A final, particularly loud explosion rocked the rooftop with the Beowolf nest, and Blake looked up to see her partner sail through the air and slam into the bridge next to them.

"Having comms back up sure would be nice." Yang groaned as she dusted herself off.

"You didn't have to stay and fight after we got Sam off the bridge." Blake pointed out.

Yang shook her head, "Nah, that alpha needed to be reminded that he was several yards below me on the totem pole." Her eyes narrowed as she added, " _Was._ "

"Either way, this problem with the comms is brutal." Samuelson said, stepping back to let Yang punch open the locked door, "Can't imagine how much shit the other squads are running into because of it."

The team ran down the hallway, crashed through the window on the far end, and deftly landed in front of the empty dormitory that played home to XCOM's comm station. The group took a moment to let Samuelson make sure his first aid wasn't falling apart from the exertion while the other three ran did a once-over of the dormitory's exterior.

"No smoke, fire, or damaged windows." Mtambe observed, "Whoever did this must have known to be discrete about the sabotage."

Blake nodded, "If it's the same people who orchestrated this whole mess, I'm not exactly surprised."

Yang pulled out her scroll to unlock the door and the squad swept into the dormitory. They moved up the stairs in silence, but halted just before rounding the corner into the hallway. Faint voices carried down from further up the hallway. Voices that shouldn't be there. Mtambe pulled a flashbang off his belt, held up three fingers, and quietly counted down. The explosive rolled down the hallway and detonated on zero, and the squad dashed out of cover to see who got caught in the blast. The sight of the victims chilled Blake to her core: a trio of White Fang grunts clutching their ears and trying to regain their vision.

Yang didn't need to know anything else before her instincts took over and her fists launched a flurry of explosive rounds down the hallway. The engineers followed her lead and gauss rifles chattered in a tenor accompaniment to Yang's booming bass. The flanked and helpless grunts dropped before Blake could even shout for them to wait.

Blake cringed inwardly at the ruthless efficiency of her team as she dashed forward to assess the damage and hopefully find survivors. While Yang slowly followed behind her, Blake quickly determined that the first two grunts were very much dead. The third, however, was still alive with his mask half-shattered and his chest struggling to rise and fall.

"Brother." Blake said in a pleading whisper, "Why are you doing this? Why are you even here? Faunus fall by the hundreds or thousands tonight. Please tell me that the White Fang isn't behind this."

The grunt coughed blood and glared at Blake with a look of pure hate.

"T-traitor." He hissed, "Your so-called friends will get what's coming to them." He looked past Blake and an evil smile crossed his face, "Taurus is going to enjoy watching them _burn_."

Blake's eyes widened and she looked back to see Mtambe and Samuelson open the door to the comm room. The idea that Adam could be here tonight kept Blake rooted in a mixture of shock and fear. Yang, however, had enough sense to dash and blast her way towards the operatives as she yelled at them to get out of the doorway. All of her momentum allowed the huntress to shove the engineers to the floor several feet away, leaving Yang standing in front of the open door just as an audible _click_ reached Blake's ears. An explosion rocked the building and fire poured into the hall, completely enveloping Yang in an infernal embrace.

" _YANG!_ " Blake screamed, and she dashed forward as the fire retreated to see her partner laying face-up and unmoving on the floor. Her sacrifice wasn't in vain, Blake noted, and the two operatives slowly sat up from where they had fallen before the explosion. They were singed and dazed, but mostly unharmed. The same could not be said for Yang. Blake gingerly examined her partner's injuries, and a quiet wheeze escaped Yang's lips.

"Yang… Yang, please. Talk to me." Blake frantically tried to recall how to treat a burn victim, but so many thoughts raced through her mind that she struggled to remember the first aid lessons given by Ren and XCOM's Medical cadre.

"How precious." An amused voice said from down the hall, and Blake froze while the hairs shot up on the back of her neck. She slowly turned around to see her worst fears confirmed.

The sight of Adam Taurus, a thin smirk sitting beneath a masked face as he gazed upon his handiwork, stirred something strange in Blake. She felt as though Mercury had nicked her with his poisoned blade once more, with red slowly bleeding in from edges of her vision and narrowing her focus down onto the one man responsible for her suffering. This time, however, Blake knew that the seething rage was one-hundred percent her own. Adam had almost murdered her best friend, and he relished the sight of Blake's anguish. The man she had looked up to for so long, who she would have followed to the four corners of Remnant if he so desired, was nothing like the sick, twisted caricature of Adam Taurus that stood before her now.

"Mtambe." She whispered, "Take care of Sergeant Xiao Long."

Blake stood up, brandished her sword, and glared daggers at her old mentor. He probably thought his little trick had struck a critical blow at the poor, fragile psyche of the insecure protege that used to follow him like a shadow. He probably thought that the stress of Yang's mortality, and the Vytal festival crumbling all around her, would bring little Blake to her knees, and she would come sniveling to his side, presumably where this jackass thought she belonged.

Fuck. That.

Clearly their time apart had left Adam longing for the girl Blake used to be and unaware of the woman she had become. And if he had lost sight of what the White Fang stood for, what _he_ was supposed to be… well, maybe he needed an ass-kicking to finally remember.

* * *

To Nora's surprise (and increasing concern), the remaining Grimm slunk back into their gopher holes while the disembodied laughter continued to rise in volume.

"Your orders, sir?" Ren asked as the two students stepped to Ozpin's side. Ozpin, Nora noticed, had fallen back towards the strange equipment at the back of the room. Was he trying to put himself between that stuff and… whatever evil was slowly filling the hall?

"This is a fight that I neither expect nor wish for you to join, students." He turned to Ren, "Take miss Valkyrie and find a corner to hide. Stay in the shadows, stay quiet, use your semblance if you must, but _do not draw attention to yourself._ "

The laughter stopped, causing Ozpin to focus once more on the formless smoke billowing across the floor. "Go. Now."

The huntsmen didn't need to be told twice. Ren grabbed Nora by her wrist, and she followed her partner as he dashed off to the side of the cavernous hallway towards a small transept that offered some shadowy cover. She slid behind a square pillar and pushed herself flat against the wall while Ren peeked around from their cover.

"What's happening?" Nora asked, she felt her skin crawl as gooseflesh spread down her arms, though she suspected the cold wall had nothing to do with it, "Why did Ozpin tell us to hide?"

"I don't know." Ren answered. He peeked around the column for half a second before returning to Nora's side at the wall, "But I've never seen him this shaken."

Nora was becoming increasingly uncomfortable with the situation as the waiting game dragged out longer and longer, "What could possibly have Ozpin so spooked, though? Isn't he, like, super powerful?"

A strong gust blew through the transept, as if something was sucking the air out of the entire hallway, and all of the rolling black fog vanished from view. Nora was certain she could have heard a pin drop amidst the ensuing silence.

A voice, low, deadly, and feminine, drifted up the hallway alongside the steady beat of light footsteps, " _Hello, Ozpin. Surprised to see me?_ "

"Not particularly." Ozpin answered, his tone even in spite of the alarm that Nora and Ren had witnessed earlier, "Where your pets go, I know you can follow. To be honest, I'm more surprised it took you so long to pay me a visit."

" _Tch. I had some annoying issues that needed to be dealt with. Who knew that our little friend could be so resourceful? I look away for one second, and he gets to work shutting down my little tin soldiers._ " The woman huffed, " _But honestly, you're not the least bit curious how I got in here?_ "

Nora kept her back pressed to the wall and Ren's hand in a death grip. Her soul screamed at every word this woman spoke, yet she knew that she needed to remain absolutely silent. She looked pleadingly at Ren for help. He nodded, extracted his hand from Nora's, and pulled her into a gentle embrace.

"You're here, and I can't change that, so why would I waste time worrying about the unimportant details?"

Despite the infectious shivers of dread that seemed to seep under her skin at the sound of the woman's voice, Nora felt the fear draining as if dissolved by the mere touch of her closest friend.

" _Agreed._ " The voice said, and the change in tone from playfully cocky to chillingly deadpan sent a shiver down Nora's spine, " _You know as well as I do why I came here._ "

"And you know as well as I do that I cannot allow you to take her."

The woman didn't even bother answering before throwing herself into combat and marking the start of the worst minutes of Nora's life. The young huntress could feel the air vibrate with energy as Ozpin fought not only for his own survival, but that of his students and the woman trapped in the back of the room. Pressed up against the wall and not daring to steal even a single peek, Nora was forced to subject herself to the sounds of unholy shrieks as the evil witch assaulted the headmaster with eldritch forces that she scarcely comprehended.

The roar of Grimm would echo through the hallway one second, and then be silenced the next as the dark smoke billowed like a rolling blanket around the corner and across the floor. Flashes of emerald clashed against bloody lightning as Ozpin fought back, but each cry of pain that escaped his throat felt like a dagger in Nora's chest. Ozpin the unflappable, Ozpin the almighty… someone existed that could force him to struggle against extinction, and the thought of that terrified Nora.

" _Give her to me._ "

"... No."

The determination in Ozpin's voice offered Nora a small shred of hope as the woman responded with a frustrated yell, Even with Ren's efforts to suppress her fears, the stress proved too great for Nora and she leaned out for a split-second to see what was happening. She only caught sight of the carnage for mere moments, but the image seared itself into her memory like a vivid nightmare almost instantly.

Two primordial forces clashing hundreds or thousands of feet below the masses struggling for survival on the surface. On one side stood a man, his muted green aura surrounding him like a cloak that seemed to let him flicker in and out of time itself. His expression was one of determination as he stared down his foe and threw tendrils of emerald lightning up at the witch. And yet, doubt seeped into that determination like a crack slowly snaking its way through his armor.

Across from him, the source of all of Nora's nightmares for years to come hovered several feet above the floor, elevated by the Grimm essence that rolled across her body and coalesced into horrors both new and familiar with the flick of her hand. Several Beowolves lunged forward at their mistress's command to absorb the blow of Ozpin's latest attack while the woman summoned more demons from the inky darkness to do her bidding. The evil ash, though rebuffed by Ozpin's energy, still roiled forward and sought to suffocate him with tireless determination that would surely outlast the headmaster's diminishing stamina.

Nora pressed herself against the cold wall of the transept once more and softly whimpered. The destructive battle unfolding only yards away brought memories, vivid and painful, rushing to the forefront of her mind. Kuroyuri, where she met Ren and the last time he protected her from an impossibly powerful Grimm abomination. The feeling of complete helplessness, the loss that Ren had suffered that day, sparked Nora's drive to become a huntress and make sure they never experienced that horror ever again. And yet here she sat. Frozen, silent, and hoping that the evil would just go away.

The flashing lights stopped and the explosive sounds subsided, leaving only the sounds of heavy breathing in its wake. Did Ozpin win? The sound of the woman's voice, a steel blade cutting into Nora's heart, told the young huntress that no, the fight was not over.

" _I am starting to grow weary of your games, Oz._ "

"Why must you continue down this path?" Ozpin said, and even Nora noticed the effort it took for him to keep his voice even, "You know what awaits at the end."

" _Ascension? Why would I strive for anything else, dear friend?_ "

"Your deal with the Devil has blinded you to the truth. Listen to yourself, M-"

" _ENOUGH!_ "

A crimson flashbang erupted in the main hall that shockwaved throughout the entire basement floor and instantly blinded Nora. Amid her disorientation, the young huntress felt something heavy slam against the concrete wall. She panicked when she felt Ren let go of her shoulders, and she cried out his name in spite of Ozpin's orders to remain silent. When her vision recovered several seconds later, she saw Ren standing above her, staring down… something. It looked human during the split-second glance Nora had stolen during the battle, yet now she had some doubts after her first real look. What person had ashen skin, bloody veins, and those _eyes_?

" _How adorably heroic._ " The witch said as she watched Ren stand over his partner, " _Fortunately for you, I have more important matters to attend to. Ozpin and I have a lot of catching up to do._ " She nodded back into the hallway, " _And I'll be taking_ her _as well._ "

She opened her hand and loosed another flash of raw energy, more powerful than the first. Nora realized she'd been knocked out when she regained her senses and found herself in a pile with Ren. She breathed a small sigh of relief when she felt her partner stir once she sat up. While Ren took a moment to collect himself, Nora examined their surroundings. They were still in the basement, complete with the hundreds of Grimm burrows and shattered concrete courtesy of Magnhild. From her position, Nora could also see the electronic equipment along the backwall that Ozpin had so desperately sought to protect. It definitely showed signs of vandalism, however, what with shattered glass and sparking wires.

That was when Nora realized that she and Ren were very much alone. How long had they been knocked out? What was going on up top?

Before she could explore further and get some answers, a faint purple glow shone down the hallway from the direction of the elevator shaft and the floor began to rumble.

* * *

A/N: So here we are, at the third of the three chapters I wrote during my little hiatus. Is the fourth one ready? Nope. Is it close, at least? I think so. But I'll be honest: work has been kicking my ass lately. I know it's a pretty weak excuse, but those of you who usually engage me in conversations about my chapters will have noticed that I was unusually quiet over these past two weeks. That's not because I suddenly grew a dislike for talking about my passion project. It's because any spare energy I can scrape up in the evenings and on weekends is either devoted to my real life obligations or to writing the next chapter. I am hoping that I will have the next chapter completed before two more weeks roll around... but we'll see.

Is there an end in sight to my extreme workload? Yes, though it's probably going to be late September to mid October. I still have enough capacity until then to keep making progress, though I think (hope?) I'll be much more proficient/prolific once things settle down.

Will these chapters be easier to write after BoB is over? Good lord, I hope so. This has been my most ambitious story arc to date, and while I'm definitely proud of what I've created, I'll be glad to see it finished. I've got one more chapter to go, and I swear it's the last one. I won't lie, though, it's more than likely going to end in another cliffhanger, because that seems to be the theme of this battle.

Thank you for listening to my ramblings. I really appreciate all of you who have chosen to continue this journey with me, and I wish I could be the punctual writer that I used to be, and the one that you all deserve.

Cheers.


	22. Combat Rush

A/N: Oh hey, I got this chapter finished on time. Neat. It hasn't had a chance to go through a proper editorial pass, though, so please feel free to point out any errors that you may find. I'll work on getting them fixed when I get the chance.

* * *

The situation, Bradford determined, looked fair.

Comms were back online (presumably thanks to XCOM's Chief Engineer, as Bradford had heard nothing from Blake and Yang's ops team), Fonseca reported steady progress in moving his survivors towards the city to join with the larger group of operatives and huntsmen stationed at the Amity evac zone, Lily was alive and well, and Penny's team of Skysnipers was in position to begin shelling the dragon the next time it flew too close to XCOM's part of the city. Bradford was certain that the flying monstrosity wouldn't be going down quietly, but the sooner they could stop the constant drip of fresh Grimm reinforcements, the easier it would be for his operatives to hold the line and keep the Safe Zone safe against the howling hordes.

" _MAC's are live, heat sinks are set, and the target is coming into range!_ " Penny reported.

"Jaegers, you are clear to engage on the Odin's mark." Bradford ordered. Even as he gave the command, a slight feeling of unease started to creep up the Central Officer's spine. So far, the dragon hadn't done anything to directly threaten any of the factions engaged in tonight's battle. That would likely change once the MEC's started taking shots at it. XCOM had faced other powerful Grimm over the past few months, and even new dangers tonight, but how did any of that compare to the creature presently marauding the skies above Vale? XCOM's first encounter with the Grimm had led RWBY and JNPR to observe that the Remnant variants of the creatures were weaker than their Terran counterparts, but the reports he received regarding the trio of Beringel that rampaged through the fairgrounds told Bradford that not all Remnant Grimm could be torn apart like tissue paper.

" _COORDINATING FIRING SOLUTIONS._ " Gidjit called out, " _HOLD._ "

As the dragon flew closer, Bradford reminded himself that it was a threat that he simply couldn't afford to ignore. Even if it wasn't engaging in the fight, its mere presence struck fear in Vale's citizens and guests, thereby drawing more Grimm into the fray. With everything else seemingly under control, there was no better time than now to start tackling the new airborne problem. With any luck, the _other_ airborne problem had already been taken care of. The rogue cruiser had not changed its flight pattern at all since Bradford had dispatched the Icarus strike team, and the last report he heard from the squad leader was when the fliers had landed after a careful approach and a successful attempt to sabotage the main cannon battery.

" _MARK._ "

The air shuddered and the hairs on Bradford's neck stood on end as the three Jaegers fired their modified railguns. The first shot grazed the monster's wing, the second scored its belly, and the third crashed into its shoulder. The dragon stumbled through the air, surprised that any would dare fight it, before righting itself and loosing a scream that rattled Bradford's ears and cracked glass in the storefronts throughout the Safe Zone. Then it set its sights on the source of its pain.

" _Negative damage._ " One of the MECs reported as the dragon flew through the fusilade unfazed, " _Venting required to cycle down MACs. Time: thirty seconds._ "

" _Leave it to us to buy you that time._ " Forklift answered, " _Just make sure your next shots hit it where it hurts. Gidjit? Let's roll._ "

" _DEPLOYING COMBAT SUITE._ "

Well, that could have gone better. Bradford had confidence that the Odin's crew would be able to hold its own against the dragon, but how much damage would the monster be able to do first?

No sense in taking chances. "All available teams," Bradford keyed, "We have an inbound bogey, and it's coming in hot. Get all civilians to cover ASAP and prepare to assist the Odin in bringing this bastard down. Rocketeers prep Shredders and Gunners prep Flak. We're in for a bumpy ride."

* * *

"Something's got the dragon riled up." Gamma-Four reported.

Gamma-Actual, Lieutenant Dionicio 'Nicho' Cortez raised an eyebrow, "What do you mean 'something?' Who else has cajones big enough to piss off a dragon but the Central Officer?"

Cortez held his position by the main door with half of the Icarus landing party, weapons locked and ready to fire the moment someone or something decided to step out. Bradford's decision to attach bioelectric operatives to the cruiser team paid off almost as soon as they started preparations for a breach. While the range of the bioelectric field was somewhat limited, it extended far enough for Nicho's operatives to detect and report a multitude of dead bodies. Either this ship had a very inexperienced crew, or whoever killed everyone and took out the other two cruisers had training on par (or better) with XCOM's top commandos. In light of the fact that the rogue cruiser hadn't made any efforts to join the fray, Nicho decided that Gamma squad had the luxury of time to make sure they had all the information they could get before breaking down the door and announcing their presence to the ship's occupants.

Gamma had three bioelectric troopers. Cortez opted to keep one, 'Socks,' with the main team while the other two were dispatched to a pair of scouting teams in an effort to determine if they could locate the live (and likely hostile) individuals onboard the ship.

"Seven," Nicho checked over comms (thank _Dios_ they'd been restored), "Any luck?"

" _More bodies on the other side of the deck, but nothing living yet._ "

" _No luck on the top floor, either, sir._ " Nine reported, " _Either they know we're looking and are trying to stay hidden, or they abandoned ship._ "

Not likely, but that would explain why the ship wasn't doing anything. Either way, recon had gone on long enough. "Scout teams, the door party is moving in. Set charges and be ready to deploy into flanking positions if we find anything. Bio ops, stay vigilant."

" _Understood, sir. Good luck, Nicho._ "

"Charges set, sir." Three said.

Go time. "Team, stand clear and be ready for contacts."

The doors blew inward, and Nicho waited a few moments before sending in his chameleon scout to get eyes inside. Gamma-Two wrapped the night's shadows around herself and slipped into the main entry.

"So far so good." Four muttered, "Let's hope it stays that way."

" _Clear. Move up._ "

The rest of the main squad quietly filed into the entry room and took up defensive positions in case their hosts were planning an ambush.

"Not getting any tingly feelings, boss." Socks reported, "Aside from… y'know… the bodies."

The many, many bodies. Nicho had no doubt that the ship takeover was the work of an expert. Dead crewmen were strewn about everywhere, all with looks of fear or anguish on their faces. Blood-stained punctures in their otherwise immaculate uniforms indicated that their murders were more surgical than savage. Who did this?

Nicho heard a bang and saw a salvo of glowing projectiles sail across the air and crash explosively into Gamma's defensive position. Amid the yells of surprise from his operatives, Dionicio also heard the sound of metal rolling on metal accompanied by a quiet beeping.

"Take cover!"

The grenades exploded, and the squad quickly discovered that they were elemental when electrical energy spiderwebbed across the floor to shock the entrenched operatives.

"Fucking hell!"

"Contacts! Contacts!"

The operatives began to blindly return fire in the direction of the surprise assault. Gauss rounds chattered and tore holes in the decking and ship equipment as XCOM fought back against the unseen commandos. A gurgling yell to his right caused Nicho to look up and see Gamma-Four crumple at the feet of a diminutive swordswoman.

"Cloakers!" Nicho shouted, swinging his rifle around to train it on the new contact, but she vanished in an array of shattering glass. Another salvo of explosive rounds rocked his squad's position, and the Lieutenant fought the urge to panic.

"Socks! I need eyes on the cloaker!" He keyed his mic, "Scout teams, engage!"

Explosions detonated overhead to reveal the two ambush teams, and small explosives hissed and spewed pink mist as the soldiers dropped a couple of Smoke grenades into the room. That may have helped with the artillery barrage, but it didn't solve the issue of the cloaked assassin.

"Diesel is down! Little fucker got Diesel!"

"We need to pull back, sir! No way we can deal with this shit!"

Nicho was tempted to agree, but he also wasn't one to retreat without a parting shot. If these commandos were so intent on keeping their ship, Gamma-Actual had no qualms about leaving them with a crashed wreckage.

"Scorched earth." He ordered, "I want this flight deck leveled."

He pulled a pair of plasma grenades off of his belt, primed them, and hurled the explosives across the room towards where he guessed the enemy rocketeer had hunkered down. The other operatives followed suit, and the room echoed with the sounds of primed grenades clattering and beeping before they detonated in a hellstorm of plasmic fury. The ship started to list almost immediately.

"Pull back."

Under the cover of a gaussian fusillade, the members of Gamma squad fell back one-by-one. The scout teams had dropped through their makeshift doorways immediately following the neon fireworks, and the bio ops spread themselves out among the ranks of their comrades in an effort to avoid any more surprise attacks. The squad retreated through the main door that marked the main team's original breach attempt and dug in on the off-chance that the commandos had chosen to pursue them. With his squad on overwatch, Nicho allowed himself a moment to breathe and take stock of the situation.

Three deaths and two wounded, while far more than he would have liked, didn't necessarily warrant scrapping the mission. The sabotage was certainly in motion, but Nicho didn't want to run the risk of giving the commandos free reign of the ship and possibly finding a way to either salvage it or direct it onto a crash-course with Vale's dense city center. They needed to stay, but they also needed to avoid getting wiped out by… whatever that deadly cloaker was.

Well maybe he needed to fight fire with fire.

"Two." He said in a voice barely above a whisper, "Give me eyes in that room. The rest of us will re-deploy under the hull and work our way towards the other side of the ship. If the enemy shows itself, go loud and the cavalry will come in hot on their asses."

The grenade volley had done more than enough to give the squad's chameleon cloaker ample cover to slip in undetected. Hazy smoke hung low on the deck while the main lighting flickered from damaged power lines worked with small fires to create an ensemble of dancing shadows that would disorient anyone on the lookout for the XCOM scout. Two nodded without a word and she slipped forward into the shadows once more.

The rest of Gamma dropped off the side of the ship without a word. Now that he knew they were here, Nicho was determined to catch these bastards. And if they failed? Well, at least the commandos wouldn't get to keep the ship.

* * *

This was bad. The three XCOM operatives protecting Shen opened fire on the woman, and Pyrrha watched as the intruder spun out of the way with acrobatic grace while pulling a weapon off her back and putting a pair of arrows into the two Albatross pilots. The first died almost as soon as the arrow pierced his throat, while the one strapped to Shen cried out in pain with the jet-black arrow jammed in his flank.

"Annette!" Jaune shouted while he formed a shield wall with Pyrrha to protect Shen. The Major didn't need to be told twice before she shot the glass behind her and threw the moaning pilot (and Dr. Shen) through the opening and followed suit. Rather than shoot down the escapees, the woman in red simply watched as the trio dropped out of sight before turning her attention back to the two remaining fighters.

"Your friend is fortunate," She said with a smirk as she sauntered back towards the middle of the room. Pyrrha could feel the woman's eyes sizing her up as she continued to talk, "I was told to spare the old man. The pilots had no such protection. And sadly, neither do you."

"Who are you?" Pyrrha asked. She watched the woman like a hawk, her muscles twitching and ready to spring into action at a moment's notice if and when the intruder made a first move, "Why are you slaughtering so many innocents?"

The woman casually split her bow into a pair of blades, and Pyrrha noted the weight (or lack thereof) as her opponent easily twirled her weapons., "You needn't concern yourself with who I am. And since you're not long for this world, you needn't concern yourself with my reasons, either."

As Pyrrha leaned back into her battle-ready stance, weapons ready and eyes locked with her armed adversary, a distant memory clicked and gave the huntress pause. The seething hatred rippling just beneath the femme fatale mask, this tower that served as their battleground…

Oh. Oh no.

The moment Pyrrha realized that this fight marked the beginning of the nightmare that played night after night during her time in Greece, her confidence gave way to fear. Now that she could finally see her murderer's face, the thought of what was to come rattled Pyrrha even more. Behind the sexy eyes and sultry smile, Pyrrha saw cruelty and a hunger for power. The intruder adopted a relaxed stance as she watched Pyrrha slowly panic, but even her casual pose belied a calculating readiness that Pyrrha recognized from years on the tournament circuit. This woman was going to kill her, but only after soundly defeating her in combat and making her feel like a small, helpless child in the face of such indomitable power. This was the end of Pyrrha's journey. This was her Destiny.

Tempered steel rattled to Pyrrha's left, and she looked in startled surprise as Jaune lowered himself to match his partner. "Lady, we've fought against murder bugs, mechanical abominations, and literal eldritch horrors. If you think we're going to let you walk all over us just because you know a few magic tricks and you talk a good game, you're sorely mistaken."

The bravado, Pyrrha knew, was intended to help remind her that she wasn't alone. A couple of cocky words weren't going to do much against a cold killer, but they certainly helped Pyrrha remember the words that Jaune had said to her on that moonlit beach: they would always fight together so that they may never die alone.

The woman's lips curled into a thin, cruel smile, "I look forward to crushing your arrogance and turning it to terror seconds before I end you. Though I think I'll kill the lovely lady first just so you can feel abject despair one last time before you die."

The dragon roared in the distance, and the woman grinned.

"Time's up." Like liquid lightning, the woman leapt towards Ozpin's table. She crashed into Jaune's shield to push him off-balance before reversing her momentum and throwing herself at his partner.

Pyrrha deflected the strike and pivoted to counterattack with her own. The intruder blocked the first thrust, but failed to anticipate Pyrrha deftly formshifting her spear into a sword for a followup. The two women traded blows with cool, calculated precision for a few seconds before the assailant grew tired of playing fair. A gout of flame erupted from her hand and Pyrrha yelped in surprise as it licked her bare skin and forced her to step back. She recovered in time to raise her shield, but too late to properly deflect the attack. The force of the strike threw Pyrrha across the room, and she watched in surprise as the woman used the flame to propel her forward in her unyielding effort to put an end to Pyrrha's life.

Thrusters fired off to the left, and silver crashed into crimson as Jaune tackled the woman into one of the room's columns.

"You're not the only one who can fly around here!" He shouted. Pyrrha's skin crawled as the woman flashed her partner with an evil smile and unleashed a cascade of fire at Jaune. Even as her partner tried deflecting the blow with his shield, Pyrrha flung out her Aura to magnetically grip Jaune's armor and pull him away from the flame. The moment she let go of his armor, Jaune jet-boosted himself back at the woman. The brief respite allowed the intruder to regain her bearings and she, predictably, dodged out of Jaune's way. Akouo crashed into her shoulder, and the intruder only had a fraction of a second to deflect Milo before Pyrrha delivered a shoulder check that morphed into a grappling throw.

The woman tumbled once, twice along the floor before rolling into a combat stance and slamming her swords together. A trio of burning arrows flew across the room, but Jaune had already stepped in front of his weaponless partner, and two of the arrows bounced harmlessly off of Crocea Mors while the third skimmed his thigh. Jaune hissed in pain as Pyrrha's weapons flew back into her hands.

"Crying so soon?" The woman teased.

"I've suffered worse." Jaune answered, "Pyrrha?"

The words 'Arc Thrower' always followed whenever he used her name with that tone, so Pyrrha flung her partner like a battering ram. To Pyrrha's immense satisfaction, a look of surprise crossed the woman's face when she realized that one partner had willingly allowed himself to be weaponized by the other. She shot more fire at her attacker, but Jaune blew through it like a cloud of Thin Man acid. He collided with the woman for a second time, though she managed to recover a fraction of a second faster than he did and slashed one of her blades across his leg. Jaune yelped and tripped mid-recovery, sending his weapons clattering across the floor as he continued to roll with his momentum.

Before the woman even had time to enjoy her small victory, a familiar voice spoke into the room.

' _People of Remnant, I am Pyrrha Nikos, and I stand before you with an important message._ '

The woman's smile curled into a frown once she realized what the sudden interruption meant.

"Well that's unfortunate."

* * *

"Have you come to beg me to take you back, my love?"

Blake glowered at Adam as she stalked down the hallway towards her old mentor. Rather than answer, Blake changed her sword into a bladed pistol.

"Tsk, what a shame," The man said with a sigh, "I was so hoping to avoid using force to make you submit to me." He pulled his sword out of its sheath and twirled the blade idly, "But I suppose you always had that cat-like obstinan-"

Blake didn't let Adam finish his unbearably stupid taunt before throwing her bladed gun down the hall and forcing him to defend against the opening strike. He deflected the spinning shuriken, and the weapon embedded itself in a closed door a few yard behind its intended target, allowing Blake to pull herself forward and finish closing the gap to her mentor. She twisted away from his counterswing and landed hard before yanking her gun from its door to send it flying back towards Adam. He smacked it away a second time, and Blake used his occupied attention to leap forward under the cover of a shadow clone to deliver a melee strike.

She growled in frustration as Adam's knee forced her to evade instead of deliver her cutting blow.

"Have you forgotten?" Adam asked, a tinge of disappointment in his voice, "I _know_ you, darling. Your clones cannot deceive me."

Blake didn't bother to respond to his taunting and instead continued her assault as she looked for a way to outmaneuver this monster she once knew. Time and again, she threw herself and her gun at him with lightning speed, and each time he deflected and countered her hit-and-run strikes. Blake knew better than to try and pelt him with Dust rounds from her weapon. The building likely wouldn't survive the fallout of his energized counterattack. In any case, Blake's speed wasn't helping her get even a single hit in against Adam. As cliche and annoying as his taunting was, Adam was right: she'd fought and trained with him for too long to use her strongest tactics against him.

But she had learned a new way to fight while on Earth, hadn't she? When Blake's injury meant she no longer had her clones and shadows to hide behind, Yang helped her partner learn a different way to fight. A more direct way to fight.

And that was something Adam had never seen.

Blake paused for a moment to ready her weapons and recall the countless hours of training Yang had gladly given her. Adam mistook the lull in combat for hesitancy, and the smug grin returned to his face. "Had enough? Tired of pointlessly struggling and resisting your fate?"

If her fate was to be a slavish lapdog for a twisted and evil caricature of her oldest friend, then Blake would challenge her fate until the day she died. Sword and sheath gripped tightly in her hands, Blake threw herself at Adam and watched as his grin grew wider. He swung his crimson sword as he had so many times before, but Blake didn't step out of the way this time. She held up both of her weapons and braced herself to block the swipe. Even though she knew that Adam hadn't put his full force behind the strike (as he expected her to blink away), the shock that traveled through her metallic limbs still hurt like hell as her shoulders fought to resist. The surprise maneuver bought Blake a split second of surprise, and she used the advantage to kick off and drive her shoulder into Adam's gut with all the strength her legs could muster while switching to a reverse grip on her sheath and slamming the pommel into her foe's chin..

Adam stumbled back in surprise, his smirk replaced with a sneer as he rubbed his face where Blake had struck him.

"Bitch…" He muttered, "So you wanna play rough, then? Fine by m-"

Again, Blake wasn't in the mood to let this madman drawl on like the comic book villain he clearly thought he was. She dashed forward with sword and sheath to beat the hell out of Adam. She did her best to divert rather than block his next attack, but she still grunted in pain from the energy that she simply could not redirect. Still, she knew her Aura could handle a few of these hits, and so Blake stayed on-course and crashed into Adam once again. She swung her sheath, which he caught, before form-shifting her blade into a pistol and pressing the muzzle directly against Adam's flank. The gun fired three times, and Adam roared in pain and anger when he realized that Blake's direct assault had allowed her to sneak in a surprise attack despite his bragging to the contrary.

With the tables seemingly turned, Blake continued to apply pressure. While their deadly dance felt reminiscent of her engagements with Berserkers on Earth, the need to stay close forced her to eat several more hits from Adam. Her Aura continued to hold, though Blake knew she couldn't maintain this trade of blows for very long. Adam struggled to adapt to Blake's tactic of using her agility to slip past his defenses rather than dodge to safety, and his swings grew more wild and frustrated as she continued to pivot and land blows on him in spite of his efforts to backstep and put some distance between them. The close quarters of the hallway actually worked to Blake's advantage, as it only provided Adam with one direction of escape: away from Yang.

"Screw this." He hissed before sweeping his blade in a wide arc that shattered walls and finally succeeded in pushing Blake back, "Your equipment is in ruins and your precious girlfriend is dead. You can wallow in your misery and suffering for all I care."

Adam threw another Aura-infused strike at Blake to force her into a defensive block before he dashed down the hallway and out the window.

"Oh no you fucking don't." Blake whispered before charging down the hallway after Adam. She had to trust that Samuelson could properly triage her partner. Blake promised herself that she would give Yang's assailant a proper ass-kicking, and nothing in the last few minutes had changed that plan.

* * *

Master Sergeant Jacqueline 'Voodoo' Alaine waited silently for the two little rats to come scurrying out of their hidey hole in a vain effort to save their sinking ship. Alloy Strike Rifle held at the ready, her eyes flicked between the few remaining consoles that managed to survive Gamma squad's grenade salvo. It didn't take too long for her patience to pay off, and an angry voice drifted over the sound of the crackling deck fires.

"Peachy, just… _peachy_. I finally get the toy I she promised me, and some uppity kids decide to blow a hole in it! Neo, are you certain you didn't see any signs of them on your sweep of the deck? What about outside? Alright, alright! Sheesh. Just don't want the party crashers to make things even worse while I try to pull a miracle over here. Let's see…"

Voodoo toggled her ear piece twice, and she heard an affirmative double-click a few short seconds later. Keeping her weapons out of sight (past experience revealed that they didn't blend in as well with her gene mod), Voodoo continued to watch as the two commandos came into view. First was a tall man with a sharp taste in fashion. Bowler hat, white jacket, black gloves, stylish cane, crisp pants and snappy shoes. It didn't surprise her that someone that detail-oriented had managed to wipe out the ship's security detail. Then again, the young woman sauntering next to him probably made that easier. Casually twirling an umbrella that Voodoo had watched her shove through Diesel's neck, the diminutive partner in crime lazily walked alongside the first commando as he set to work pulling up command prompts on one of the consoles.

While the man was frantically trying to save his ship, the miniature murderer seemed more interested in watching the smoke and flames on the deck and the Griffons as they flew by outside. Maybe she trusted that her partner would fix everything without her help? Voodoo figured she was more likely keeping a lookout for XCOM, which would have been a good idea if XCOM didn't have the same cloaking bullshit as Little Miss Mary Poppins. Well, the chameleon skin would fizzle after the opening shot, so Voodoo had to make it count. She didn't know what the man was capable of, but if XCOM had taught her one thing, it was that she preferred Thin Men and Mutons to Seekers any day of the week.

A good Psi Panic should do the trick. And hey… maybe these two would take to psionics about as poorly as Captain Rose did.

Psionic energy swirled around inside Voodoo's mind as she built up power for her ambush. She took aim at the relaxed woman and unleashed nightmarish hell upon her Id. The reaction was instantaneous: the girl dropped the umbrella and clutched her head, fell to her knees and screamed. The man, startled by the noise, looked over at his partner in shock.

"Neo!"

Voodoo clicked her earpiece twice, and the far deck wall blew open a few seconds later. The man growled, and Voodoo watched as he fired several rounds from his cane at the opening. The first couple rocked the aperture, presumably to shake loose any operatives that were hiding just out of sight, but then the commando got creative. He 'hooked' the third and fourth shots with the top of his can, whirled around, and threw the unstable energy in an arc at the breach. The weakened metal gave way completely to the blast, and a chorus of surprised yells confirmed that the man's plan paid off.

A high-powered gauss round drilled into the man's shoulder, and he stumbled from the attack. A second struck his thigh, and he yelped in pain and frustration. Voodoo rose from her hiding place and continued to fire rounds into her target. He deflected the next three with his cane and answered with an explosive salvo. Voodoo dodged the first two, but the third clipped her foot and yanked her ankle in a painful direction. She tried to spool up another psi attack, but an explosion shattered her concentration and caused Voodoo to see two tall, smug men slowly saunter towards her. She threw more gauss rounds at the commando, but he deflected them with ease before standing only feet away from her crumpled form.

"Not so tough now, are ya?" He drawled, "It's a shame, but I don't think _she'll_ want me to be taking prisoners. After all, that stuffy General offered me the same kindness, and… well… look at where that got him."

A shot from his cane shattered her knee, and Voodoo failed to suppress a scream.

"Aww. That hurt? Shoulda thought of that before you shot me with your popgun."

The man fired again at point blank range, and Voodoo's arm turned into a pulpy, bloody mess as she cried out once more.

"Oh help! Help!" The commando intoned as he cupped hims hands to his mouth and called out towards the far end of the room, "The mean man is slowly killing me! Isn't there _anyone_ who could stop him?"

He watched the hole and waited for a response, shrugged when none came, and settled for blasting Voodoo's good hand as she tried to reach for her rifle. "You've got guts, I'll give you that. But guts won't save you from a bullet between the eyes. Sorry."

He fired his cane one last time and grimaced at the blood that splattered onto his coat. "Because why wouldn't my evening get worse than it already is? Alright Neo, let's see what she actually did to you."

He returned to his partner's side and knelt down to examine her condition. The woman was on all fours with a pool of vomit spreading on the floor beneath her. Her limbs wouldn't stop shaking, and the random cries of pain and fear unsettled the man more than anything else.

"C'mon, Neo. It's alright. You know what? Forget about the stupid ship. Let's get out of here and find somewhere quiet to plan our next move. We did our job, so the boss can't be mad. Neo, snap out of it!"

A clink echoed off the metal to his left, and a brilliant flash caused stars to explode in the man's vision. He fell back into his partner and clutched his face with one hand while the other flailed around to regain balance. He heard a muted shot in the distance before he felt something smash into his chin and dig into his shirt. His free hand tried to grab hold of something stationary ss the commando felt himself get dragged towards the far end of the room, but the only thing it found was a decorative umbrella. The dragging picked up speed as the hook dug deeper into his jacket and shirt, and the man yelped as he was pulled off the deck and into the chilly night sky.

Nicho watched with a small sense of satisfaction when his grappling hook ripped free of the man's clothes and the murderer flew head-over-foot into the Grimm-infested darkness. Maybe if XCOM was lucky, an enterprising Griffon would find itself a free lunch and rid Remnant of a sadistic asshole. But his team had more pressing matters to worry about as the survivors jumped and hooked their way back onto the command deck.

"Three, find a way to get this thing stabilized, or to at least put it on a safe crash course. Five, you're on fire fighting duty. Six, I want you to taze the fuck out of our guest so that we don't have to worry about her bullshit."

"Shouldn't I just kill her, sir?"

"Negative. She's the only solid lead we have right now about this entire mess. We better let Bradford or Vahlen interrogate her."

Six discharged his Arc Thrower into the still-shaken woman, then discharged it again for good measure. "Hopefully she talks."

"Boss," Three called from the front, "We did a pretty serious number on the navigations controls after the first scuffle. No way am I stopping this thing from crashing."

"Can you at least steer it?"

"Barely."

Not much more he could ask for at this point. At least the ship was pointed in a fairly safe direction.

* * *

" _Here it comes!_ "

" _CANNONS READY._ "

" _Rockets on my mark… mark._ "

Bradford watched as seven white contrails streaked towards the flying monster, supplemented by a withering salvo of Cyberdisc fire. The rockets detonated in explosive plumes while golden death bolts lanced the dragon, which screamed with pained rage. The Grimm crashed through one of the high-rises and a combination of shattered concrete ichorous sludge rained down upon the operatives below. Bradford watched a squad of Icarus jump troopers tumble from their perch atop the ruined building, though all but one managed to regain their bearings and ignite their boosters or launch their hooks before hitting the ground.

" _Grimm contacts. Assaults moving to neutralize._ "

Small arms fire erupted on the streets as XCOM's ground support worked to contain the creatures spawned by the dragon while the MEC's cycled their weapons and the Odin continued to take shots at the primary target. Gidjit tracked the monster's flight with robotic precision and pelted it with molten ammunition while the Odin's primary cannons bombarded the creature with heavier firepower.

" _Hoooo shit that's a lot of wolves. Strike teams, let the huntsmen take the lead. We'll serve as a last line of defense to protect the civilians. Medics, Snipers, and Gunners, support the frontliners if you see an opening._ "

" _Central, how the_ fuck _is that thing still flying?_ "

Bradford didn't have an answer to that. Strike Eight had said that the Grimm on Earth were noticeably tougher than their Remnant counterparts, so how were XCOM's biggest guns ineffective against the dragon when sustained fire from the Odin and Gidjit tore apart anything back home?

" _MACs ready to fire again in ten seconds._ "

" _Good. It's coming around for another pass. Take aim and get ready to fire on Penny's mark._ "

" _Sir! The cruiser is moving!_ "

" _It's also smoking… think the strike team is alright?_ "

Whether Nicho's crew or the original hijackers had caused the damage, at least the cruiser was being dealt with. Bradford noted that the cruiser seemed to be falling out of the sky, though it was headed towards the school and not the city.

" _Ground teams are taking some serious heat, sir. The huntsmen are doing their best, but the dragon spawned a lot of Alphas which are making things difficult._ "

Shit. Bradford needed his heaviest firepower focusing on the dragon, but what was the point of taking that thing down if the horde completely overran the Safe Zone?

"Gidjit, could you work a little magic on the wolves while Forklift helps Penny with the dragon?"

" _ACQUIRING TARGETS._ "

Once more, Bradford had the opportunity to revel in the luxury of having a Cyberdisc working with the good guys. Gidjit's twin cannons strafed the streets below with high-energy death and disrupted the Grimm reinforcements charging at the huntsmen already locked in melee. Gauss weapons discharged from XCOM's backline as operatives helped in the efforts to regain control of the kill zone. Not a moment too soon, either, what with the dragon about to drop more of its unholy progeny into the firefight.

" _Skysnipers, please focus fire on the target's shoulder! I am applying a holomarker for your convenience!_ "

One the Odin's many gadgets whirred to life, and it painted Penny's target with a neon blue color.

"Gunners," Bradford called, "Get ready to flak the hell out of that thing after our Jaegers take their shots."

The dragon flew in low, and the Odin's marker painted Penny's target with neon-blue light. Only two of the three Jaegers got a shot off, as it quickly became clear that the dragon was aiming for the third on its entry into the city. Concrete, glass, and rebar shattered for a second time as the building splintered, but Penny's plan paid dividends. The MAC rounds drilled the monster's shoulder with a loud _crunch_ and the monster roared with pain. It crashed into a second building and dug its claws into the exterior while it worked to regain its bearings.

"Hit it with everything you've got."

Tracer rounds lit up the night as the Gunners trained their weapons on the immobile monster and unleashed a magnetic hellstorm. The dragon loosed a glass-shattering scream and kicked off to take flight once more. Flak rounds exploded along its trajectory as it struggled to gain altitude, but 'struggling to gain altitude' wasn't 'dead,' and that bothered the Central Officer. Still, the next wave of Grimm had already begun to form, and so the rest of XCOM and the huntsmen didn't have time to wonder about the details of the flying bullet sponge. The Jaegers, however, were still tracking their prey.

" _Target is gaining altitude._ " The third MEC reported, " _Requesting permission to engage._ "

"Make it count, Maya." Bradford answered, "Penny, keep that shoulder painted."

" _Yes, sir!_ "

The Jaeger boosted up to the roof of an intact building and took aim at the dragon.

" _Battle computer locked… firing now._ "

The MAC erupted, and the ballistic projectile streaked towards the dragon at near-instantaneous speed. It scored the belly of the beast, eliciting another scream from the monster, and Bradford watched as it limped higher into the sky until it found a new perch: the smoking cruiser.

"Oh, that can't be good."

* * *

"ADAM, GET BACK HERE."

Blake dashed across the central courtyard, angrily lashing out at any Beowolves that dared interfere with her hunt. Her superior vision allowed Blake to see through the darkness and catch sight of her target up ahead. She fired several shots at his retreating back, and growled in annoyance as he held out his sword to catch her rounds. In response, he reached back with his shotgun and fired off a quick salvo to try and slow down his pursuer. There was no way in hell that Blake was going to allow that to happen.

Adam turned a corner, and Blake anchored her pistol into a wall so that she could whip around the corner and gain some ground on her quarry. Several more shots rang out, and Blake heard a muted _clink_ as one of them grazed her leg. She rolled into a landing and continued to dash after Adam.

"Tired of trying to win me back?" Blake taunted.

To her complete lack of a surprise, he shouted, "You're fucking crazy!"

" _And you're not?!_ "

She fired her pistol once more, this time aiming for his feet so he couldn't easily absorb the shots. Concrete churned as he ran, and Blake took satisfaction in noting that, while Adam managed to block some of her attacks, a few managed to slip past and bite into his heels and ankles. Finally, Adam planted his sword into the ground and turned to face Blake. She knew she needed to be careful, as even the small amount of Dust he'd absorbed from her attacks would be enough to seriously hurt if he caught her off-guard.

He fired his shotgun again, and Blake evaded with her clones as she drew closer to her enemy. She stopped when she was about fifteen yards away, and the two of them stared at each other in the darkness. Adam pulled his crimson sword out of the ground and held it in his usual ready stance. No cocky twirling or biting remarks this time. It looked like Adam had finally realized that he needed to take Blake seriously. Without warning, he bull-rushed his foe and delivered a powerful uppercut with his blade. Blake vanished into smoky mist, and Adam growled once he realized he'd fallen for her deception.

Cloaked and watching from a few paces away, Blake waited to see what Adam would do. She stepped carefully around him while he readied his sword once again. His Aura would almost certainly tell him that she hadn't left, but she doubted that he could pinpoint her exact location with it. The blade in his hand and the hair on his head glowed ever so slightly, and Blake wondered if Adam was really about to waste his stored energy on a shot in the dark. With a wide swing, Adam lashed out in the completely wrong direction, and Blake almost laughed before she realized that the attack had a purpose. The building looming over their battleground didn't disintegrate from Adam's strike, but he caused enough damage to its structural foundation for it to creak and groan as the wall began to slowly tilt.

It dawned on Blake that Adam probably enjoyed the idea of destroying the school she had chosen over him. Every brick that crumbled was something that he could take away from her, and that seemed to be his sole objective now that he realized he could never take her back. And as a side benefit, he would probably use the crash as a means to escape Blake's wrath and live to torment her another day.

And that was unacceptable.

Blake charged at Adam, and he turned to face the source of danger with a grin. The two fighters clashed, with the low creak of the building punctuating their melee. Adam's stamina exceeded Blake's, and she knew it, so a one-for-one trade of blows was simply out of the question. Instead, Blake alternated between an evasive dance and a head-on assault to keep Adam off-balance. While her Aura protested every time Adam dealt blow, Gambol Shroud struck its prey again and again as she responded in kind.

Loose concrete started to fall as the building began to list even further from its slow architectural failure, and Adam smiled as the sights and sounds of the structure's death disturbed Blake.

"It's what you deserve." He said, blocking Blake's latest attack and putting her on the defensive with a blast from his shotgun.

And he deserved far worse. Blake shadowstepped in rapid succession to lose Adam's lock before getting in close once more. She blocked his counterswipe with her arm and winced at the ever-so-slight sound of metal reverberating in response to the contact. In a desperate fury, Blake threw herself into a flurry of rapid attacks, hoping against hope that she could wear him down before he could completely break her Aura. She knew that retreating was the better option, but now that Adam had shown his true, deranged colors, Remnant couldn't afford for him to remain loose and at the head of the White Fang.

Steel beams popped and glass windows shattered behind them, and Blake's rage allowed her to dip into a reserve of energy that fueled her second wind. She swiped, kicked, and jumped her way over, under, and around Adam. Her constant motion stopped Adam from throwing anything other than rapid, lighter attacks her way. Try as he might to wind up a heavy strike, Adam quickly learned that doing so left him open to a needling stab or an opportunistic gunshot. Blake bit back grunts of pain every time Adam's sword glanced off her defenses. She felt the nicks and cuts slowly start to pile up and tax on her stamina.

The gambit almost paid off. Even as the failing architecture fell into its neighbor behind them, Blake could hear Adam's breathing grow ragged. He may have been the more experienced huntsman, but eight months of constant training and fighting on Earth meant that Blake's mentor couldn't confidently claim he was still the most experienced combatant. And as Adam grew tired, he grew angry. As he grew angry, he grew reckless.

"I will not go out like this!" He yelled in frustration as Blake deflected another strike. She watched his Aura fizzle as she landed her counterattack, "The White Fang needs me!"

Blake raised her arm to deliver a (hopefully final) pommel strike to Adam's temple. She dashed in-

 _Slice._

-and felt a mild feedback shock as Adam's blade severed her limb. She stumbled forward at the sudden change in balance, and Adam whirled around to stare triumphantly at his prize. His jaw dropped at the sight of the sparking, mechanical limb lying on the ground between the two fighters.

Beacon tower exploded, causing Blake and Adam to glance up as shards of glass and metal rained down from the sky. The largest chunk of twisted steel hurtled towards their battleground, and the ground shuddered as the makeshift meteor crashed into the tilted building with a reverberating _boom_.

Amid the chaos, both combatants tried to take the other by surprise. Blake instinctively dropped a clone at the last second and swung her sheath at the back of Adam's head as she blew past him. Moments after she felt her weapon connect, the sky fell down around them, and Blake dashed to safety away from the collapsing building. Blake doubled back once the dust settled to see Adam, face mask shattered and his eyes fixated on the mechanical limb, with his lower body crushed underneath a pile of rebar and concrete while a pool of blood slowly grew beneath him.

"What… what the fuck…?" He muttered, eyes wide as he watched Blake stow Gambol Shroud and slowly walk over to pick up the alien limb with her _other_ alien limb.

She walked back to Adam's crippled body, knelt down in front of his face, and locked eyes with him before answering, "The last person the White Fang needs is you, Adam. Murdering thousands of innocents, humans and faunus alike, just to 'make a statement?' This does nothing for our cause, and only serves to satisfy your own ego. You've taken everything my father worked tirelessly and thanklessly to build, and you've burnt it to the ground with blind and petty hatred."

Perhaps in the final minutes of his life, the real Adam would break through and give Blake some words of encouragement, some confirmation that he had twisted himself into something evil and that she had done the right thing by putting a stop to his madness.

"Get off your high horse, you fucking bitch. You're no better than me, and you know it."

… Nope. Blake sighed and stood up to leave, but not before she delivered her final words to the dying man, "May the world never learn of how evil you have become."

* * *

" _As I am certain you are already aware, the Vytal Festival has suffered a catastrophic attack._ "

Jaune crashed into the pillar with a grunt and spun unceremoniously across the floor. Evidently, the upload of Pyrrha's message to the CCTS forced this woman to stop playing with her food and kicked her murderous intent into overdrive. The sound of clashing swords rang in his ears, and he looked up to see the two women fighting like wild hellcats. Jaune realized at that moment that, while Pyrrha certainly didn't go easy on him during their one-hundred and twenty-five bouts, she didn't throw everything she had at him, either. The intruder kept trying to catch Pyrrha off-guard with fire blasts, but Pyrrha was having none of it. Her weapon spun like it had a mind of its own while Pyrrha expertly pivoted back, forward, under, up, and over.

Jaune scrambled to his feet and watched as his partner contorted her body into positions and angles that he never thought possible. Against any other opponent, the titanic display of skill would have been overkill…

" _We are not sure who the instigators are, and we do not yet know their motive._ "

… Here, though, it was the only thing keeping her alive. While this woman clearly didn't possess the same degree of technical skill, she exuded raw power. Jets of flame sent Pyrrha sliding back, and a volley of arrows struck her shield before she could throw herself back into melee. And even then, the amount of force this woman put behind every blade swing and shoulder shove made Jaune nervous. He was a strong dude, but his partner was always able to work around his brute strength by outmaneuvering him. Their opponent, on the other hand, had just enough finesse to avoid falling into Pyrrha's checkmate.

Armaments at the ready, Jaune held his ground by Ozpin's console and waited for an opening. He knew that the recording was the woman's primary target, but it also seemed like she knew better than to try and make a break for it and risk turning her back on Pyrrha. And while Jaune was itching to help his partner, interrupting her deadly dance with the devil would probably do more harm than good. At the same time, Jaune kept his jump jets hot and his eyes glued to the battle: he wasn't about to be caught flat-footed if Pyrrha needed some backup.

Since he didn't have the attention of a bloodthirsty woman on him with a laser focus like Pyrrha did, Jaune had enough spare attention to listen to the recording playing in the background. With equal amounts of curiosity and frustration, he noticed that it was playing at a slower pace than he remembered Pyrrha speaking. A line would parse, followed by a pause, before the next line would play. Was the audio compiling in batches as it prepped for the world-wide transmission? Jaune didn't know if it was working as intended, but he did know that it means he and Pyrrha would need to stall for even longer before they could be sure that the signal went out.

" _It would be unfair of me to tell you that everything is fine, and that you have no need to be concerned. That would be a disservice to you and the gravity of the situation._ "

Hearing Pyrrha's voice echoing her earlier words of honesty and encouragement unnerved Jaune. The recording sounded so confident, so self-assured, but now their present situation felt like the exact opposite. Jaune would fight through hell or high water for Pyrrha without a second thought, but doubt creeped in from the corners of his mind whether or not they could make it through this fight. The intruder was intent on stopping that recording at all costs, and that feral drive to win was something Jaune had never seen before, on Remnant or Earth. The aliens had untold numbers of soldiers willing to fight and die for the cause, but it felt different. The Sectoids were skittish, the Outsiders were calculating, the Mutons were brutes, and hell, even the Ethereals' air of superiority was more obnoxious than downright terrifying (their psionics served that role well enough). This woman had the tireless drive of a Chryssalid but the deadly intelligence of a Thin Man.

He considered literally fighting fire with fire by pulling out his Plasma Dragon while Pyrrha kept the woman occupied. On the one hand, it might catch her by surprise and provide Pyrrha a much-needed distraction so that she could assess and reengage on her own terms. Plus, the attacker had almost certainly never seen a plasma cannon before, so Jaune would probably have the element of surprise. On the other hand, was it really a good idea to attack the intruder with fire? Would she be able to control it and throw it back in his face? Besides, his shield was his best line of defense, and he wouldn't be able to wield it while using his Dragon.

Pyrrha cried out as a flaming kick caught her off guard and a follow-up Dust blast launched her across the room. The woman leapt forward, a hungry predator relishing the thrill of victory as it moved in for the killing blow, and Jaune ignited his jump jets. Time to rumble.

" _But what I can tell you is that we have an international coalition working both tirelessly and heroically to do everything they can to keep you safe._ "

Jaune slid in front of his partner, raised his shield, and braced. The blow landed, accompanied by a flame that washed across Crocea Mors and poured onto the floor around the two partners while a blinding flash of light enveloped the room. A soft glow bathed Ozpin's office in the attack's aftermath as Jaune's ornamented armor and tower shield rippled with golden energy. He pulled himself up to his full height and stared down the woman who raised a curious eyebrow.

"Interesting…"

She threw herself at her newest foe, but Jaune found (with no small amount of satisfaction) that he didn't backslide or stumble nearly as easily as before. He drove forward with his shield and followed through with a rising slash from his sword. The woman easily hurdled over Jaune's heavy frame, but didn't count on Pyrrha recovering so easily and paid for it with a projectile shield connecting with her ribs. She twisted into a backflip and safely disengaged with the two partners to reassess the situation. Jaune knew that Pyrrha wouldn't allow that, and he felt the familiar spectral tug on his armor and grinned.

It amused him to no end how much the Arc Thrower maneuver had grown on his partner.

" _Huntsmen and huntresses from the four Kingdoms have recognized that this is not simply a matter of Valean security…_ "

Airborne once more, Jaune raced towards his target. Though the woman dodged out of the way at the last second, he felt his sword arm magnetically lash out and the blade grazed her crimson dress. Jaune crashed into the wall with bone-shattering force, but his Aura pulsed and left him feeling no pain. He spun around and held out his shield, knowing that the woman would probably try to slip in a backstab after his collision. Instead, Jaune heard the sound of metal clanging against metal as his partner jumped in to keep their adversary occupied. While he couldn't match Pyrrha's ability to go toe-to-toe with this crazed woman, he could at least offer himself as another tool in his partner's arsenal. His role as a mobile battering ram seemed to be working out pretty well so far, but Jaune could also position himself to keep their foe focused on two fronts instead of just one. He circled the cat fight with weapons ready, and his golden glow made it easy to remind the woman that she had two huntsmen to contend with rather than just one. The side glance she threw his way every few seconds told Jaune that his idea was working. Whether it helped Pyrrha or not remained to be seen, but at least he had something he could do while he waited for his partner to pull back and throw him back into the fray.

Out of the corner of his eye, something caught Jaune's attention. His stomach twisted when he realized what it was. Calling out Pyrrha's name in warning would only distract her long enough for a sword to slip between her ribs. Jaune only had one option.

He fired up his jump jets and charged the two women. The invader backstepped out of the way, but Jaune wasn't worried about her for the moment. He plowed into Pyrrha, who let out a cry of surprise, and the two of them jetted into Ozpin's desk where Jaune twisted around to take the brunt of their impact with the furniture.

The room shattered moments later.

"… _But a crisis that demands that all the people of Remnant must stand together to face it._ "

The two huntsmen pulled themselves up to their feet as they assessed the situation. The dragon (latched onto an Atlesian cruiser) had torn away the back half of the room during its haphazard flyby, elevator shaft and all. Jaune figured that his partner could probably use her magnetics to safely drop them down the gaping maw into the lobby after they were done here. The bigger issue, however, was the wide open gap to the outside of the tower. One wrong jet launch could send Jaune tumbling through the air and effectively remove him from the fight if Pyrrha wasn't quick enough to pull him back with her semblance.

Speaking of which, Pyrrha had already found a silver lining in the change to their situation. Clock gears spun in a protective formation around the two partners as they scanned the room for their foe. Jaune held his shield up, ready to deflect any arrows that the woman might send their way. His ears picked up the tinkling sound of glass from the wreckage of the far side, and he inched closer to Pyrrha. They didn't have to wait long before the source of the noise made itself known: a flurry of broken shards assailed their fortress, shattering against the gears and eroding away at Jaune's Aura like a thousand tiny swords.

A volley of flaming arrows followed in short order that melted the granular whirlwind as it passed through and bounced off of Jaune's shield. He hissed in pain from the burning fluid splattering against the side of his face, and he could feel his Aura starting to flag as it strained to protect him, but Jaune held firm against the storm. Pyrrha grunted, and the gear wall shot forward into the room. Jaune heard a cry of surprise, and he sighed in relief at the sight of the crimson woman lying face-down on the floor. Before he could go investigate whether she was alive or dead, Jaune felt a weak tug on his pant leg.

"Jaune…" Pyrrha breathed, and Jaune noticed with concern that numerous lacerations criss-crossed her arms and chest. The fatigue in her eyes and the weakness in her arms… had she used the last of her energy to throw those gears? "I… I need to rest."

Before he could answer, the ground shuddered beneath their feet.

" _We will fight shoulder-to-shoulder, back-to-back to fend off the Grimm._ "

A column of purple energy exploded through the floor and seared the room with explosive force. The windows that still remained shattered in an instant, and both huntsmen were blasted out into the night sky.

"Pyrrha!"

His Semblance had all but vanished after absorbing the damage from the rupture, but the sight of Pyrrha's rag doll body lit a fire in his heart as he propelled himself towards his partner. His jump-jets allowed him to easily catch up with her, and Jaune pulled Pyrrha into his arms as he tried to pivot himself to jet boost their free fall into a softer landing. He waited until he was about halfway to the ground before igniting his thrusters. His descent slowed with a sudden jerk, then picked up speed again as gravity regained its hold. With the ground rushing up left between him and a hard landing, Jaune initiated a second burn.

Only three of the four thrusters answered his command, and the unexpected imbalance threw Jaune into the tower wall. His head smashed into the iron with a _crack_ , and the world went black.

" _And we will find out who caused this so that we may bring this horrific chapter to a conclusive end._ "

* * *

The huntsmen and operatives had just about finished cleaning up the remaining Grimm in the Safe Zone when Beacon lived up to its name and painted the night sky with a purple lance. The column dispersed high in the atmosphere, and whatever had powered the supernatural phenomenon shut off after a few short seconds. While the comms had become dirty with static after the dragon tore off half of the CCTS tower with its crash landing, they were once again well and truly dead after the purple beam blew the transmission tower wide open.

While the death beam probably meant more problems for XCOM, the comm issue at least gave Bradford something to focus on in the short term while his mind worked to process the new information.

"I hope you made some progress on rigging up the Odin as a radio tower, Doctor," Bradford muttered to Vahlen, "Because I'm out of ideas for Remnant-to-Remnant communications."

Bradford keyed his comm to the Temple Ship channel and hailed his Field Commander with a weary sigh, "Commander, the dragon's been dealt with, but our comms have been knocked offline again."

No answer. Bradford checked his earpiece and tried again. No matter how sketchy communications had been on Remnant, patching through to Earth never had any problems. "Pete, this is Bradford. Acknowledge."

Nothing. Ice crept into the Central Officer's veins as an awful thought passed through his mind. He tried again a third and a fourth time to contact the Temple Ship, and each attempt met with failure. Bradford turned back to Vahlen, and the subtle horror growing on her face matched the feeling in the pit of his stomach.

"Bradford…" she whispered, "The light… You don't think that we…?"

The Central Officer nodded, "Unless something changes within the next few minutes, I think we can only draw one conclusion here."

Vahlen fumbled with her datapad and took a rattled breath, "We're… cut off." She looked back at Bradford, "What do we do?"

Bradford didn't know. But he knew that saying as much was never an acceptable answer. "The only thing we can do. Survive."

* * *

A/N: And that concludes this arc's round of 'Make everything miserable for XCOM.' Now that they've hit rock bottom, it's time for them to find a way to build themselves back up. And I'm going to really enjoy writing the process of building them back up.


	23. Aid Protocol

A/N: Apologies for the hiccup in the schedule, but I can honestly say that writing is a lot easier now that BoB is over. The aftermath recover will take a few chapters, but it's really nice being able to take a break from the high-octane action that I packed into the climax of the last arc. Now we get to see XCOM do what they do best.

* * *

Act Two

The First Step

"Commander."

Van Doorn quietly sighed, put on his best face, and turned to face Bailey, "Yes, Councilman?"

"Are there any… issues with the Operation?"

Shit.

"Beg your pardon, sir. What gave you that impression?"

"Commander, you don't get very far in my… profession without learning how to read nonverbals." He gestured at Van Doorn's full crew of officers and specialists working in the Temple Ship's Mission Control, "Your team hides it well, but… they are panicking."

Van Doorn so desperately wanted to lie to the Councilman, to feed him some excuse about information they'd received from the Central Officer, or a made-up snag that had his people on high alert. Anything that wouldn't make XCOM look incompetent, or give the Council a reason to accuse Bradford of playing with fire by using the relay (and that the Temple Ship should therefore be confiscated and examined by the Council's science teams). But Van Doorn and Bradford had asked for openness from these people, dared Bailey to take the all-important first step by personally touring the Temple Ship, and the councilman obliged without a second thought. If anyone earned the right to the truth, it was Bailey.

"You deserve more credit than I have offered you thus far." Van Doorn admitted, "My apologies, sir. Yes, we are having an issue. All channels that we had open with our Strike Teams have gone dark."

"… All channels?"

Van Doorn nodded, "Comms, video feeds, soldier biometrics. Gone."

"I won't insult your competence, Commander, by asking if you've tried to… re-establish contact with our operatives."

Van Doorn wondered if the Councilman's use of 'our' implied that the Council viewed XCOM and its operatives as 'theirs,' or if Bailey viewed himself as part of XCOM. The Field Commander gestured to the operators manning all stations in Mission Control, "We haven't _stopped_ trying, Councilman, though I fear it's a futile effort. The Hyperwave Relay's behavior changed dramatically moments before we lost contact."

"Explain."

"After we originally built it, the relay remained relatively inert." The Field Commander explained, "For weeks it stayed like this, and a lot of us wondered if it was actually going to do anything. Finally, something did trigger it to… well, I suppose 'activate' would be the most appropriate word for what happened. As the techs who were on duty that day describe it, the thing lit up like a Christmas tree and looked like it was going to fly apart with how fast it was spinning. Within moments after activation, we first encountered our first guests from Remnant."

"Team RWBY."

"Correct, sir."

"And now it has reverted to its… original configuration." Bailey guessed.

"Correct, sir."

Bailey went quiet for a minute, and Van Doorn returned his attention to his console as updates and reports continued to stream in about XCOM's latest problem.

"Then I suppose we have some work to do, Commander."

And here is where the conversation could go one of two ways. Would Van Doorn have to deal with the Bailey that Bradford had worried about? Or the Bailey that had surprised XCOM over the last few days? "With respect, Councilman, we are already working on the issue."

"As well you should. I meant that we, the Council, have work to do. To… support XCOM in its hour of need the way it supported us in ours. If you will come with me, Commander, I believe we have a… call to make. I am confident that the Council will authorize the commitment of any and all… resources necessary to help you resolve this matter as efficiently as possible."

Score one for Good Bailey. "… Thank you, sir."

"You will have… complete control over the operation, of course. These are your people who are trapped on another world. Your friends and… allies, who have shed their blood alongside yours, who require your aid. For me to stand in the way of that and try to assume control of the situation would be... ill-advised."

For the first time in the last hour, Van Doorn cracked a smile, "Your decision is greatly appreciated, Councilman. Follow me, sir, and I'll take you to the Situation Room immediately."

* * *

" _Outpost Two, this is Six-Beta returning to base. We have another batch of survivors in tow._ "

" _Six-Beta, this is Outpost Two. Our spotters have been tracking you for about five minutes now, and have seen no activity on your tail. Welcome back._ "

The situation became both better and worse for Bradford in the hours following the chaos. The hyperwave link between Earth and Remnant remained completely broken, and all of his repeated attempts to contact the Temple Ship met with failure. However, the huntsmen and strike teams had successfully cleared out all the Grimm contacts in the Safe Zone and set up a solid perimeter that protected all avenues leading into the population center. The Jaegers and their teams were posted to the rooftops of the taller buildings in the area to provide a commanding view and clear line of fire at any hordes that might attempt an assault. Engineers set up barricades at choke points while XCOM squads worked with huntsmen teams to provide a rapid response ground force that could mobilize at the first warning from the Jaegers.

Fonseca's survivor group arrived thirty minutes later, bringing with them a host of tired soldiers, huntsmen, and civilians. More than that, though, they brought supplies. As they traveled from the Fairgrounds to the established Safe Zone, operatives identified and picked up useful equipment and materials that were left abandoned in the mayhem of the battle. While technically theft, the huntsmen and civilians quickly agreed with the wisdom in these actions. After all, saving lives and coordinating an effective response now was more important than making sure some shop or hotel still had their blankets and electronics when their employees returned days (or weeks) later. Looters who stole for personal gain was one thing, but taking and repurposing equipment to help those in dire need was another matter entirely.

Vahlen's plan to restore short-range communications with the Odin worked, thanks to the help of a few of XCOM's more technical operatives. Bradford was once again able to radio his strike teams as they worked to secure Vale and its citizens. The signal was weak, unfortunately, and despite her efforts to push the range further, the Doctor could only provide coverage over a section of the city. That meant that any sorties Bradford dispatched to look for more survivors would be unable to call for backup, and that the teams sent to the academy during the fighting were on their own until XCOM and the huntsmen regained control of the city.

" _No operative casualties to report, sir. The Grimm are still out there, but it looks like they've lost whatever coordination they had during the battle. No big ones, either._ "

" _Four-Alpha returning via Outpost Three, sir. We're reporting the same situation as Six-Beta. We've got a couple more wounded civilians that'll need attention, though._ "

Or after the energy column broke the CCTS tower. Perhaps it disrupted something in their physiology that had allowed them to act as a hive mind? Bradford didn't know, but maybe he could ask Vahlen if she'd examined enough data from Terran Grimm to form a decent hypothesis. For now, though, at least he didn't have to worry about losing more personnel to the Grimm during the mop-up. After several months of dealing with Grimm after the war, the standard fare of Beowolves and Boarbatusks should be easy for them to handle.

The energy blast itself, however, concerned him. While the color may have been a fluke, the purple hue was way too similar to that of the hyperwave portal for him to discount it as mere coincidence. If it was indeed related to XCOM's interplanetary link, then Vahlen was going to have a lot of work ahead of her. In Bradford's experience, system hiccups never had catastrophic side effects like blowing up a tower. Complete system failures, on the other hand, did.

More mixed news came in the arrival of Dr. Shen and Annette. The comms lit up the moment they flew into the safe zone.

" _It's Shen! Whoever is looking after Lily, haul ass and get her into the plaza ASAP._ "

" _Get a Medic, too. Annette looks fine, but Shen's pilot is in bad shape._ "

Bradford was already in the main square when Shen landed and unfastened himself from his pilot. The two shook hands, and the Chief Engineer didn't have to wait long for a small voice to cry out behind him, "DAD!"

Dr. Shen whipped around at the sound of his daughter, and Bradford had to hold his friend steady as the elderly Engineer almost lost the strength to stand when he saw her standing next to a watchful Ruby. Lily dashed towards her father, threw her arms around him, and buried her face in his chest while Bradford caught Ruby's eye. His Captain had stuck to Lily like glue ever since the hairy extraction op. Bradford couldn't really blame her: the idea of Ruby explaining to her favorite engineer that she had lost his only daughter put knots in Bradford's stomach just thinking about it.

"Dad!" She repeated, her voice muffled by her father's jacket, "Dad, I'm so sorry. I… I didn't mean to… It was an… I…"

Shen wrapped his arms around his daughter and quietly shushed her, "It doesn't matter, Lily. I didn't lose you."

"Way I heard it, she was an allstar for the group of survivors she ended up with." Bradford added, "She saw our MECs airdrop into the city and convinced the others to follow her. Figured out a way to contact us by radio and fended off a Grimm attack with weapons she improvised to buy time for Strike Three to extract them."

Dr. Shen raised an eyebrow at Bradford. "Of course she did. She's my daughter, after all."

"It was Ruby who brought the team in to save me, though." Lily said as she finally took a step back from her dad, "All of my tricks and gadgets wouldn't have mattered if it wasn't for her."

"Of course she did," Dr. Shen said with a smile, "She's my guardian angel, after all."

"Sir." Annette said from Bradford's left. He picked up on her tone and excused himself from the Shen family reunion. They walked down the main thoroughfare of the Safe Zone and passed by several busy centers of activity on their way to the makeshift Mission Control. Medics moved in and out of one damaged storefront that had a large red cross spray painted above the door. Some carried new supplies brought in from scouting parties while others carried people. Unfortunately, with access to XCOM's supply of advanced equipment effectively cut off, the infirmary's staff had to resort to more conventional methods of healing while they reserved their medikits for operatives in dire need of emergency care. A MEC stood guard at the doorway, and an Engineer would occasionally step out to refill a supply of medikits from the MEC's Restoration Module before returning inside to give the kits back to the Medics.

A large intersection packed with people and crates saw operatives and Atlas personnel distributing supplies like food and blankets to civilians both scared and confused. Bradford had pulled some of his operatives to work with a couple of huntsmen teams on trying to get all of the displaced people identified and sorted. A lot of mothers, fathers, and siblings were trying to reconnect with their friends and loved ones who had been separated in the mayhem, such as Lily's friend from the crashed shuttle. XCOM's efforts enjoyed some success already, but the 'Disconnected' list was growing faster than it was shrinking as a lot of people waited in line to be added to the database. Even so, the confidence and comfort of the men and women orchestrating the search effort helped assuage the fear and panic in the crowd and ensured the process remained orderly.

Bradford noticed Weiss moving among the survivors, offering words of comfort as well as rations. He'd seen her earlier, too, spending as much time as necessary to help each person that she approached before moving on to the next lost soul that could use a friendly smile and a show of unity. The stories he'd heard about her family (some from Weiss herself) painted an entirely different portrait than the gentle woman currently helping an elderly couple wash the blood and grime from their faces..

He arrived with Annette at Mission Control: a couple of tables and light fortifications set up in front of a hotel lobby next to the towering Odin. Engineers, both Terran and Remnant, worked to hack together equipment that could be used for comms, mapping, and an array of other emergency response tools. Personnel unpacked and sorted equipment as search and rescue teams returned with more supplies for XCOM to disseminate among the lost and confused civilians.

After a cheerful greeting from Penny, the duo stepped inside the lobby for some privacy, and Bradford turned to face the Major. "Report."

"We encountered an agent of whoever was behind this attack during our op in Ozpin's office." Annette said, "Might have even been the mastermind herself."

That explained why Annette returned with only one pilot and no huntsmen. He had hoped that Jaune and Pyrrha had stayed behind to help locate and rescue more trapped survivors at the academy, but the way Annette spoke of this agent didn't sit well with Bradford. "Was she dealt with?"

Annette shook her head, "Unknown, sir. She killed Deuces with one shot, and you saw Freebird's condition when we flew in. Took us way longer to get here than it should have because we had to stabilize his wound and rest often. Arkos stayed behind to deny her free access to Ozpin's terminal and give us the opportunity to escape."

"Shit…" Bradford sighed, "Did you learn anything about her before you left?"

"Negative, sir. Only that she was determined to stop an outbound message that Shen was putting together with Ares intended to comfort and inspire the people of Remnant."

So these agents of chaos wanted to keep the people scared. That was pretty obvious after the Amity stunt, but at least Bradford had more direct confirmation now. "Anything else to report, Major? We have no eyes on Beacon at the moment, and so I have no idea what the status is of the personnel we deployed there."

"I didn't see anyone else from RWBY, JNPR, or our strike teams, sir. I do know that Shrike and Hammertime were with us at the CCTS tower before we split up at Ozpin's request, but I don't know anything about their situation after that."

"I might have an idea." Bradford said, remembering his trip with Ozpin to the vast corridors beneath the tower. Hopefully they were deep enough underground to miss the blast that rocked Vale. Otherwise, that wasn't an excavation the Central Officer wasn't looking forward to. "If we don't hear anything soon, we'll put together a sortie to recover them. Sabretooth and BFG were dispatched from here, though, so their team should be able to find their way back without comms. And if they've got wounded and are unable to move, at least the Grimm threat is starting to become a non-issue."

"Sir?"

"Intel from our scouting parties into the city are showing a sharp decrease in Grimm activity." Bradford explained, "They're still out there, but scattered and uncoordinated. And with almost zero sightings of bigger targets like Deathstalkers or Beringels, they might even be slowly fading back into the shadows."

For a second time, Annette shook her head. "Ah… that's not quite right. During our flight here, we saw a lot of Grimm movement towards Beacon. They might not be concentrating in Vale like they were a couple of hours ago, but it's not because they're dispersing into the wilds. Something is drawing them towards the academy. Not just the smaller contacts, either: we saw a column of elephants advancing on Beacon."

So literally the exact opposite of what Bradford had hoped. "In that case, the rescue operation of our Beacon teams just got a lot trickier."

* * *

Pyrrha's eyes fluttered open as a cool breeze crossed over her face. She stared into the night sky while working to regain her bearings. No sounds of gunfire, Grimm, or fighting to be heard, so she was safe, at least for the time being. The air smelled faintly of ash and strongly of dust (the mundane kind), and so while Pyrrha determined that a lot of buildings had collapsed or been destroyed, there wasn't much danger of fire spreading and causing further damage. As she looked up, Pyrrha saw the silhouette of Beacon tower above her and winced at the memory of her battle with Jaune and that woman. While she managed to survive, the fact that the woman had managed to almost best her unnerved Pyrrha. She knew that there was no shortage of powerful people with ill intentions on Remnant, but if they had combat skills on par with _her_ …

Well, Pyrrha was alive, and had somehow survived a fall from the top of the tower. It would explain why she could neither feel nor move anything but her head at the moment. Since she hadn't become a late-night snack for some roving Grimm while passed out, Pyrrha figured she had some time to spare while her body worked to regain control of its functions. She heard rustling just outside of her peripheral vision as metal clinked on metal.

"Jaune?" She asked, "Jaune, is that you?"

The groan that answered definitely belonged to her partner.

"Easy, Jaune. We fell from the tower, so you should take a moment to make sure nothing is broken before you try to move it."

Jaune grunted an affirmative, and Pyrrha waited for a minute before she heard him answer, "Toes are fine, fingers are fine, neck is fine… looks like I'm fine."

"I must have fallen funny, since I can't move anything below my neck at the moment." Pyrrha said with a hint of jealousy.

"Don't think that's it." Jaune said, and Pyrrha heard him slowly pick himself up, "I still had some of my Aura to soften the fall. I think you were running on empty."

"Well I hope it comes back soon. I really don't enjoy feeling vulnerable like this."

Jaune's head came into view, and Pyrrha could make out his comforting smile in the darkness as he knelt down by her side. "Well that's why you've got me, isn't it? You saved my life on our first day at Beacon, so it's only fair that I return the favor."

Pyrrha rolled her eyes as Jaune sat her up, planted his shield into the ground and propped her back against it. "You returned that favor long ago when you agreed to be my partner. Besides, we've saved each other more times than I can count in the time between then and now."

"Shhh. Details." Her partner said as he removed the greaves and boots protecting her legs. He rubbed his hands together to warm them up, then got to work rubbing her calves and thighs. "Feel anything yet?"

"No." Pyrrha answered, and worry started to creep into her stomach, "No, I don't feel anything at all."

Jaune frowned, then reached into his pocket. "Lemme check your Aura… uhhh, nope. That's not gonna happen." He pulled out the corpse of his scroll, and winced at the frayed wires barely holding the pieces together.

"Try mine. It should be in the pouch on my hip." Pyrrha offered. "I'd get it for you myself, but…"

Her partner nodded without answering, and Pyrrha suffered the mild embarrassment of Jaune having to roll her slightly to get at the pouch in question. He pulled out her scroll (intact, thankfully), and started tapping on the panel. Thankfully, they had agreed to set up the biometric locks on their scrolls to recognize each other. Pyrrha really didn't want to have Jaune flopping her lifeless hand around to unlock her scroll.

"Hmm. Yeah, it looks like your Aura is already replenishing. It's not much at the moment, but should be enough…?"

Clearly not. Pyrrha took a steady breath and tried to focus on something, anything else. "We should get out of here. The tower might be unstable, and I don't want to be around if it collapses."

Jaune nodded. He re-clothed her legs, pulled his shield out of the ground, and gently laid Pyrrha back down in the dirt while he put away her scroll in his pocket and collected his things. "Yeah, you're right. I got a 'no signal' on Nora and Ren when I was checking our team's status, by the way, so they're not in scroll-to-scroll range. Alright, eeaaaasy does it."

With all the attentive care Pyrrha had come to expect from Jaune, he picked her up in his arms, angled so that she leaned forward slightly with her head resting on his shoulder.

"Maybe they finished whatever they were doing with Ozpin, and the three of them have regrouped with Bradford?" Pyrrha suggested.

Jaune nodded, "That would be nice. As for us, I hope we find _someone_ to regroup with. I'm not a fan of flying blind like this."

The two of them traveled in silence as Jaune slowly carried Pyrrha through the streets and walkways of Beacon. Griffons and Nevermores still flew overhead, though they didn't seem as agitated up as they were when Dr. Shen's group first arrived at the school. Now, they glided almost lazily, and perched atop some of the taller buildings available. Once or twice, they heard the sound of crumbling architecture as a Giant Nevermore tried to land at the top of the shattered tower and caused more of the damaged concrete to break away and fall to the streets below. Progress halted on more than one occasion when Jaune heard a pack of terrestrial Grimm roaming the campus a block or two away. He'd crouch in a dark corner, seat Pyrrha in the shadows, and rest a hand on Crocea Mors as he watched which way the monsters decided to wander.

"Guess there's still some people holed up at the school." He whispered as he picked up Pyrrha after their third encounter, "You'd think they all would have either left or been rescued by now."

"Evidently not." Pyrrha answered, then something caught her eye. "Hey, that smoke over there… is that the sabotaged comm station?"

Jaune glanced in the direction of Pyrrha's gaze and nodded. "Yeah. Yeah, it is. Bradford said he dispatched a team to investigate. Do you think they're still there?"

"Can't hurt to check." Pyrrha said, "Doesn't look like it's drawing the Grimm, though so maybe nobody's home."

"That, or they're keeping their emotions in check. Let's go find out."

* * *

Nora and Ren waited for ten minutes after the energy pulse died down before they dared venture down the hallway to figure out how they could leave the underground fortress. With the elevator shaft destroyed (and now likely a giant, gaping hole), Ren hoped that the purple blast had provided some change to the landscape that might make their ascent easier. As he walked down the hallway with his partner, Ren noticed that Nora was unusually quiet.

"Nora?"

His lifelong friend glanced over, and Ren could see the shell shock in her eyes as she answered with a flat "Hmm?"

"Is… everything alright?" Ren asked, though he already knew the answer.

Nora returned her stare towards the hallway ahead and shrugged. The two continued to walk in silence while Ren waited for an answer. Eventually, Nora quietly answered, "Not really."

Ren quietly slipped his hand into hers and gave it a squeeze. "Then we'll make it alright."

"How?" Nora asked, though Ren noticed a little bit of emotion returning to her tone, "Ozpin's gone, the tower's been… I don't know what, and we have no idea what's going on with everyone else. How do we make this alright?"

"By putting one foot in front of the other." Ren replied, "Just like you're doing right now."

"I guess so." Nora sighed.

Ren was hopeful that he could get his partner's head back in the right place by the time they reached the elevator shaft, but the gutteral scream that echoed through the hallway from seemingly all directions shattered that idea. Nora froze, and Ren winced as her hold on his hand became a death grip. The hall shuddered as the voice roared again, this time with intelligible words.

" _YOU BIIIIIIIIIITCH!_ "

The two huntsmen exchanged looks, Ren's concerned and Nora's terrified, and they quickly moved away from the center of the hallway and hugged one of the walls. Maybe that outburst was a one-time thing, and they could get back to escaping after… whatever had spoken decided to move on.

" _WE HAD AN AGREEMENT, AND THIS IS HOW YOU HONOR IT?!_ "

Nope. He (for the voice was definitely male) wasn't quite finished screaming.

"Nora." Ren whispered, "We have to keep moving. Let's stick to the wall and get out of here as fast as we can. Maybe they haven't noticed us yet, or we're not what they're looking for."

Nora nodded wordlessly and let Ren pull her along as he forged ahead. The angry voice, however, seemed perfectly content to continue spouting profanity and rage regardless.

" _FOR YEARS UPON FUCKING YEARS I TRUSTED YOU. I TRUSTED YOU BECAUSE HE TRUSTED YOU. HE BEGGED THE OTHERS TO SEE IN YOU WHAT HE DID. AND YOU REPAY HIS KINDNESS WITH TREACHERY?_ "

"Who is that?" Nora squeaked.

"I don't know, but I don't think it's us he's mad at. C'mon, we're almost at the shaft."

The only bright side Ren could see in this turn of events was that the presence of danger had reawakened Nora's fight-or-flight senses and caused her to move with purpose. The voice died down for a bit, and Ren wondered if it had finished screaming. Up ahead, he saw the rubble of the elevator shaft.

" _WHY DON'T YOU ANSWER ME, YOU GODDAMN WITCH? DON'T HAVE THE GUTS TO SPEAK UP NOW THAT YOUR BETRAYAL IS COMPLETE?_ "

One the one hand, the energy blast did indeed change the landscape of the elevator shaft. On the other, the gaping hole in the middle of the rock pile was not the kind of change Ren had hoped for. An ominous red glow only made the situation look even worse. He slowly climbed around the detritus to look for something, anything, that would help with the ascent (or even make it possible). When Nora slipped and sent a few rocks tumbling down into the central hole, the two huntsmen froze. The voice spoke again, only this time it wasn't screaming.

"… _Or do you send me agents instead? An offering perhaps, so that I might take out my rage on something that isn't you? How completely and utterly predictable._ "

Ren's pulse quickened as he realized that time was running out for a way up. The sound of mechanical whirring below only served to reinforce his observation.

" _I suppose I haven't murdered anything in a long time. Who knows? Might do me some good to just… get it out of my system._ "

The cable was completely gone, vaporised in the blast. The walls had apparently melted and re-solidified into smooth slag, so trying to use handholds to climb didn't look possible, either.

" _But isn't that what you want me to do? Maybe these are just some more loose ends of yours, and you're hoping that I'm just a convenient solution to your problems. So why should I trust you? After all, Father did, and look where that got him._ "

Nora and Ren exchanged glances as the voice continued to mull over their fate.

"… _Yes, I quite like the idea of spitting in your face, you vile, wretched old hag. As for you, interlopers… I suggest standing clear of the hole._ "

The floor shuddered beneath the two huntsmen, and they slowly stepped away from the center of the shaft. A loud _bang_ echoed from below, followed by a large chain bursting into the room and rattling upwards into the expansive darkness. A dull _thud_ rumbled back down to Nora and Ren, and they watched the chain line go taut. They stared at it in disbelief for a few seconds, and the voice seemed to notice their hesitance to make use of his offering.

" _I don't really care whether you want to live or die,_ " He mused, " _But I suggest you make up your minds quickly before I change mine. I suspect that will happen in… oh, I don't know… four minutes, thirty-seven seconds, and eighty-two milliseconds. Oh, why not make it eighty-three milliseconds? I'm feeling generous._ "

"Let's go." Ren whispered, and he leapt up onto the chain. If it was a trap, they were dead. But if they didn't at least give it a shot, it sounded like they were dead anyway.

" _Ta ta, my little thieves! And say hello to the snake for me. I'm sure she'll be surprised to see you again._ "

* * *

" _Central, this is Outpost One. We have contacts on the perimeter, heading towards the perimeter. They appear human._ "

Bradford hadn't sortied any parties to the north in the last hour, and Two-Alpha had already returned with more medical supplies and wounded civilians from a local clinic. Were people just finding the Safe Zone on their own now? If they were able-bodied, then they might be useful in expanding the perimeter and securing more of the city. Even though Grimm contacts hadn't been sighted for a long time, Bradford had no intention of taking chances and getting caught flat-footed if the reports were incorrect.

" _Getting a closer look, sir… the colors appear to be Atlesian. One-Five is attempting to hail._ "

More security personnel? Bradford didn't know how many Ironwood had deployed in Vale for the festival, but his best guess was somewhere around 'a fleet's worth.' The thought reminded Bradford of Lily's intel that she overheard Atlesian chatter about more aerial reinforcements. The fighter wing did eventually arrive, but far too late to help with the dragon issue, and so Bradford's scouts watched as the squadron landed somewhere else in the city, likely to help establish their own defensive perimeter. That suited the Central Officer just fine: a lot of people in the city could use some serious help, not just those in the commercial district with XCOM.

" _Sir, you're going to want to be at the northern barricade for this. It's the General himself._ "

… Interesting.

"General Ironwood?" Bradford asked out loud, mostly for the benefit of Goodwitch and Branwen who looked up from across the Mission Control tables with raised eyebrows, "I'll be there."

The trio walked briskly through the Safe Zone, flanked by Annette and Otter, as they prepared to greet the incoming delegation.

"So Jimmy's back, huh?"

Glynda didn't even bother to look at Qrow as she answered, "It seems you have a pair of functioning ears, Qrow. Congratulations."

"What do you think he wants?" Annette mused.

Bradford had a few guesses. "Probably wants to have his personnel back, or he's checking in to make sure we're not trying to make some sort of power play in the wake of disaster."

"Right, the whole trust thing. I've forgotten how long he can hold a grudge."

"No you haven't, Qrow."

They reached the barricades and waited as an escort of operatives and huntsmen guided Ironwood's group to the perimeter. One of the first things Bradford noticed was that Weiss's sister was at the General's side. He recalled during the Fairgrounds debrief that Weiss mentioned Winter leaving to rejoin Ironwood once she determined that the civilians were safe. The two parties locked eyes and stared at each other from a short distance. Before any of the security personnel could start to wonder about any feelings of hostility between both factions, Bradford stepped forward and offered a salute to his guest.

"General Ironwood. It's good to see that you've come through the catastrophe in one piece."

The General nodded, "At ease."

No return of pleasantries. It seemed like Ironwood was miffed about something, judging by the his curt tone of voice, though Bradford wasn't really in the mood to play games and try to figure out what he'd done in the eyes of his associate.

Might as well return the favor. "What can I do for you, sir?"

"You can start by explaining to me what your purpose is here, Captain."

"You mean _besides_ helping all the people trapped in the Grimm-infested Market District?" Qrow asked.

"That is the duty of my security detail, Qrow." Ironwood answered, casting a quick glare at the slouching huntsman before returning his attention to Bradford, "The Recon Division's supposed duty was to sniff out danger before it grew into an outbreak. Or did your orders change again?"

So professional jealousy, then? Or perhaps Ironwood was unhappy about being deceived with regards to the nature of XCOM. Either way, Bradford reminded himself that he still needed to be diplomatic.

"It's a big city." Bradford countered, "Although I don't doubt for a second that your people are going to great lengths to help those in need, you can't be everywhere at once. We are simply trying to help where we can in support of Atlas's efforts to contain the damage."

Ironwood made a point to look at the barricades, the armed guards, and finally up at the building where Outpost One kept watch with its Jaeger before commenting, "So an impressively-armed team of scouts shows up out of nowhere right when the fighting starts and decides to establish a defensible base of operations in the fallout while being able to claim it's 'for the people.' You'll forgive my hesitancy to believe your story, Captain."

"So you think what I have done, providing a perimeter to detect and respond to any Grimm incursions, is more sinister than leaving these people to die?" Why was the General being purposefully obtuse? "If you'd like, I could give you a tour of our operations so you can see for yourself that our goals here are strictly altruistic."

Even Goodwitch seemed annoyed at Ironwood's tone. "I can appreciate a healthy sense of caution, General, but perhaps you should remind yourself that Ozpin trusts this man."

"And where is our omniscient friend, if I may ask?" Ironwood said. When nobody answered, he continued, "You'll find no argument from me that Ozpin has done some great things, Glynda, but he's not as infallible as you or Qrow seem to think."

With Qrow quietly growling on one side and Annette psychically asking him if she had permission to suckerpunch the General, Bradford sighed. "Neither of us will be very productive if we continue to stand here arguing, General. Perhaps it would be best if we at least agree to cooperate for the time being, and you can state your purpose for coming here so that we may better accommodate you." It took all of his willpower to not add, 'For the people.'

Thankfully, Ironwood decided to agree with Bradford's suggestion. "I came to advise you that Atlas is starting to stage evacuation efforts for the citizens of the other kingdoms, as well as Valeans who fear for their safety by remaining here with the Grimm occupation."

"I will relay the information to the people under our care as soon as we are done here." Bradford answered, "I'm sure that a lot of these people want nothing more than to safely make their way home. We will organize and provide armed escorts for those ready to evacuate."

"I'm certain that the personnel I have stationed here will have little trouble protecting the civilians as they travel." Ironwood looked the Central Officer in the eye once more, and Bradford wondered what new complaint Ironwood might have for him now, "There is one more thing we need to address, however. Doctor Polendina-"

"-would like his daughter back now that the tournament is over and the fighting has stopped." Bradford finished. He almost forgot about the agreement. "Are you aware that she went rogue the same time the rest of your mechanized forces did?"

Ironwood nodded. "Doctor Polendina is, yes. He is rather protective of Penny, and has access to her vital systems at all times to be sure of her safety. Everything that transpired on the Colosseum, he saw firsthand."

Bradford's heart skipped a beat. Everything?

The General's eyes narrowed, as if to answer, 'Everything.'

"It was rather… interesting when he told me the details, actually." Ironwood continued, "He was surprised to discover that you had taken his generous gift to Ozpin and installed her into a Paladin-class mech."

Bradford wanted to believe that Dr. Polendina hadn't seen the hyperwave portal, but he had to assume the worst. Which meant that he had to likewise assume that Ironwood was possibly withholding that particular detail as leverage over Bradford.

"From what I've seen of Penny's abilities when using her own body, I'm not sure sure why Doctor Polendina is surprised to see her installed in another heavy weapons platform." The Central Officer stepped aside and gestured for Ironwood to enter the Safe Zone, "But you are absolutely right that the Doctor deserves to have a reunion with his daughter. If you'll come with me, we can make the arrangements for her return to Atlas."

"I'll radio ahead to let Mission Control know that you're coming." Fonseca said with a salute, "Take care, Central. General."

Bradford returned the salute and left with Ironwood's delegation for the center of the Safe Zone.


	24. Will To Survive

"You sure about this, kiddo?"

" _Absolutely._ "

"You know Rose isn't going to like it, right?"

" _I'm sure she'll find a way to forgive me._ "

"Alright, well I'll support you one-hundred percent, and I think it's safe to say that Gidjit will too-"

" _CORRECT_."

"… so let's shape up and get ready. Ironwood is almost here."

William 'Forklift' Ryder disconnected from the Odin's internal communications channel and started the mechanical process of opening up the MEC's chassis. His crew agreed that the hardened shell of the Odin might give off a rather unwelcoming first impression for a diplomatic delegation, and so opening it up to allow Ryder to greet the General face-to-face was deemed the appropriate course of action. There was no way to make Penny's disembodied voice feel less weird, though, so Ironwood would just have to deal with it.

All of XCOM's big players assembled at Mission Control once word got out that Ironwood was coming: Vahlen and Shen (and Little Shen), Ruby and Weiss, and all the available Strike leaders and officers flanked the Odin and patiently waited for the Atlesian delegation. Forklift glanced down at Ruby. Despite her best efforts to remain professional and represent XCOM as one of its Captains, she couldn't completely contain her nervous fidgeting. Ryder looked at Weiss, who stood to the Captain's right, and noted that even she looked nervous about greeting the General under the present circumstances. For his own part, the MEC pilot shared some of their nerves, but likely for an entirely different reason.

"Here they come." Forklift announced as his superior vantage point allowed him to catch sight of the delegation turning onto the main street and towards Mission Control. Bradford, Ironwood, Annette, Qrow, Glynda, and a gaggle of Atlas soldiers marched towards the awaiting welcome committee. As they got closer, the pilot had an easier time of making out the faces. He wanted to make a comment about how serious they all looked, but he reminded himself that Captain Rose was stressed enough already. And so the group waited in tense silence as Bradford finished walking down the street with his esteemed guest.

Once the Atlesian delegation arrived in front of Mission Control, Bradford gestured to the waiting personnel and said, "I believe you'll recognize a fair number of familiar faces here, General. Welcome to the heart and soul of our operation."

"Thank you, Captain." Ironwood answered. He looked around at the various operatives paying him no mind as they continued their work unpacking supplies and prepping them for distribution to the various resource centers scattered around the city square. The General then nodded at the Odin, "And that is the platform housing miss Polendina, I assume? Unless you have more than one of these in your recon arsenal…"

Bradford shook his head, "No sir. She's the crown jewel of the Valean Recon Division, and it's been a true honor to have miss Polendina at the helm." He gestured up at Ryder, "She's been working with and training a pilot of our own, however, so there's no risk of us rendering the hardware useless after her departure."

"Sergeant William Ryder, sir." Forklift greeted as he piloted the Odin into a standing salute, "Pleasure to meet you."

Ironwood ignored the greeting. "Penny? Can you hear me?"

" _Yes, General Ironwood!_ "

"Your father wants you to come home, Penny."

" _Of course! Are we leaving right now?_ "

"Yes. We'll need you to upload yourself into a portable format, then we'll collect your body and be on our way."

"General Ironwood," Ruby started, "I just want to-"

" _I would love to return to father with my original platform, but I'm afraid that isn't possible, General._ "

Multiple heads snapped around to stare incredulously at the Odin. Several passersby sensed the sudden surge in tension and glanced curiously at the meeting as they walked through the Safe Zone. Ironwood glanced sharply at Bradford. "What is the meaning of this, Captain?"

" _Oh, it's not Captain Bradford's fault,_ " Penny continued while Forklift put on his best passive face (with a hint of sadness to accentuate his co-pilot's news), " _None of us expected Amity to break apart and crash like it did. After we electrified my platform to stop my hostile behavior, I was concerned that further movement of or interaction with the hardware would cause damage, possibly irreversible, to my sentience. Sergeant Ryder and I agreed to keep watch over the body while we protected the Colosseum so that a representative of my father could come and safely collect the platform without inducing further trauma once the fighting was over. Of course, we all know what happened instead. The Sergeant and I barely had time to make it off the derelict station ourselves, and I can only assume that the body was lost when Amity broke apart before landfall._ "

"Bradford, is this true?" Ironwood asked, barely hiding the frustration in his voice.

Bradford stared at his counterpart for only a second before nodding, "It was Penny's suggestion. Given that she is more familiar with her own limitations than any of us, we deemed it necessary to leave the body where it fell to avoid damaging it. Doctor Polendina had already done Vale a great favor by lending us a split of Penny's programming, and we did not want to spit in the face of that generosity by recklessly handling the original hardware and possibly destroying it."

Ironwood pinched his nose and remained silent while he processed the new information. Forklift felt a small presence squeeze its way into his psyche.

 _That's not what happened at all! What's going on?_

 _Be cool, Captain._ Ryder thought, _Penny and I have this handled._

"Alright," Ironwood began, "While I would personally argue that not securing the body would be the more negligent choice, I can't fault you for trying to protect Penny's hardware. Especially at her own suggestion."

"Keep in mind that we were also in an extremely stressful situation with thousands of civilians that needed to get evacuated as quickly as possible." Bradford pointed out, "We didn't exactly have the luxury of taking our time to fully assess the situation."

" _I am incredibly saddened by the loss of my progenitor, General, but at least father hasn't lost everything. In that regard, I think it's safe to say that making the split was a good thing. Otherwise, he might have no daughter at all._ "

Penny's voice seemed to calm Ironwood somewhat, and he nodded, "True enough, Penny. Let's get you out of there so that I can take you home. I'm sure your father is anxious to see you."

" _I have already begun downloading my intelligence into a portable format. It shouldn't be long before the process is complete!_ "

Ironwood looked around the busy square once more, and it apparently reminded him of the other reason he had come here. "In the meantime, Captain, please instruct your personnel to coordinate efforts to escort refugees to my base camp so that they may begin the process of making their way home." Ironwood paused, then added, "I can spare a Bullhead or two to help move the wounded."

Vahlen spoke for the first time, "That would be incredibly helpful, General. My staff is working as diligently as possible to help those in need, but there are many still incapable of moving on their own yet. Any support you can spare to help us as we help the wounded is greatly appreciated."

Ironwood nodded at one of the Atlas soldiers accompanying him, and the guard stepped away from the gathering while the General returned his attention to Vahlen. "Of course, doctor. I have also noticed that several of my own soldiers found their way here during the fighting and elected to help your recon division secure this district. I see no reason to pull them out at this time, as they seem to be doing an excellent job of representing Atlas during this crisis."

"I imagine they will also be useful in our efforts to coordinate with your base camp to ensure the safe transfer of civilians. It would be better to use Atlas's established communication protocols rather than try to adapt between yours and ours." Dr. Shen observed.

"Agreed." Ironwood answered. It seemed that the General's mood improved somewhat after having two of XCOM's personnel agree with his suggestions one after the other. His gaze settled upon Weiss, and Ryder noticed the young woman stiffen almost instantly, "I don't expect an answer from you now, Miss Schnee, but do keep in mind that Dr. Polendina isn't the only father expecting the safe return of his daughter to Atlas."

"I… yes, of course, General."

A small alert rang on Ryder's console.

"Download complete, sir. Penny is ready for you to take back home."

Dr. Vahlen opened a panel on the Odin, pulled out the hardware containing Penny, and handed it to the waiting Ironwood.

"Please let Dr. Polendina know that it was an absolute pleasure working with Penny." Vahlen said, "I hope I get the chance to see her again in the future."

"I don't doubt that you will." Ironwood answered. He offered a quick salute to Bradford before turning around and leaving with his armed escort. Qrow and Glynda also left to accompany the entourage to the edge of the Safe Zone.

It took Ruby all of her willpower to wait until Ironwood was well out of earshot before whispering, "Sooooooo does anybody want to-"

"Not yet." Bradford cut her off. He looked up at Ryder, "But I fully intend to have a meeting shortly to discuss the logistics of Ironwood's news about evacuating civilians _and_ Penny's news about losing her body."

As Bradford continued to stare down the MEC pilot, another small alert dinged on the Odin's dashboard, and Ryder had to suppress a laugh as he read the notice.

 _I don't think we fooled him._

* * *

With Pyrrha in his arms, Jaune carefully made his way up the stairs and down the hallway towards the room where he and his partner had once helped MacAuley put the finishing touches on the engineer's technical masterpiece. Now, scorch marks, bullet holes, and ruined woodwork greeted the duo as they approached a broken door halfway down the hall.

Jaune walked carefully to avoid stepping on anything that might make a sound while his ears remained alert for anything that might signify danger. He doubted that whoever did this had any reason to still be around, but it didn't hurt to exercise caution. Jaune put his partner down about five paces away from the open door and crept forward with one hand on Crocea Mors. He stood against the wall at the door's edge and listened for any sounds inside.

"Alright, your burns are looking better, but it's going to be a bitch when the scabs start to crack if you flex them too much."

"Tell me about it. Fucking hell, I thought Aura was supposed to help me avoid this crap."

"Welcome to the world of us mortal peons who don't have a magical bullshit shield, kiddo."

"Funny, that's a weird way to say 'Thank you for saving me from dying in a fire, Yang.' "

Jaune knocked on the door frame and quickly announced, "Friendly! Friendly! It's me, Jaune!"

"Jaune?" Yang called from inside the room.

"And Pyrrha!" His partner added from the hallway.

One of the operatives poked his head out from around the corner and grinned, "Well aren't you two a sight for sore eyes. Come on in."

The man (Jaune recognized him as Samuelson, one of MacAuley's friends) dropped his smile a bit as he watched Jaune double back to pick up Pyrrha off the wall. Samuelson stepped out of the way and followed the duo back into the room where a resting Yang waited among a giant mess of hardware and wires. Scorch marks covered her clothes, and damp cloth wrapped around the majority of her face so that only her mouth, nose, and left eye and cheek were visible.

She let out an amused snort as she watched Jaune holding his partner bridal style.

"Y'know, Jaune, I get that Pyrrha's sorta like your princess now, but you don't have to carry her like one everywhere you go."

The two partners exchanged a look, and Yang's tone shifted, "Oh. Adding another one to the Medbay, I see." She gestured to an open space on her right, "Come on in and Dr. Samuelson will see you shortly."

"Where's Blake?" Jaune asked as he set down Pyrrha where Yang indicated, "Bradford said he dispatched the two of you to figure out what happened here."

"She's fine, if that's what you're worried about." Yang said, "And we did manage to figure out what happened here. The White Fang happened here."

Pyrrha responded first to the news, "The White Fang? Does that mean they're responsible for all this?"

Yang shrugged, "Dunno, but they're part of it at the very least. On the bright side, Adam's dead. So that's one less crazy asshole Remnant has to worry about." She gestured at her bandages, "Of course, he had to get in one last laugh before kicking the bucket."

"What about Blake? I know you said she's okay, but since she had to deal with Adam…?" Jaune asked. He'd begun to remove some of Pyrrha's armor to make her more comfortable while Samuelson checked on Yang again.

"Yeah. She's the one that beat him up for me. Didn't say much about it when she came back, though she was carrying one of her arms when she walked in, so I'm guessing she didn't totally wipe the floor with him." Yang was silent for a moment before she added, "I guess that means he got in _two_ last laughs before kicking the bucket. Stupid fucker."

Samuelson cleared his throat, "Blake left a while ago with Mtambe to scout out the area a bit. Something about an Atlas cruiser."

"We… encountered that during our mission to the tower." Pyrrha said.

"No shit?" Yang winced as she turned to face Pyrrha and stretched some of the tender skin on her neck, "Blake said that something caused the tower to explode. Well… explode before it exploded again. You guys were in there when it happened?"

Jaune nodded, "In Ozpin's office, yeah. The second blast kinda threw us out of the tower… after we had a life-and-death fight with some crazy woman that left us with pretty much no aura to deal with the blast."

Yang looked at Pyrrha's immobile body and the pin finally dropped. "… Oh."

"Well at least you have somewhere that's relatively safe to rest and heal up." Samuelson said while he methodically redressed Yang's burns, "Haven't had any Grimm come up here even though we can hear them crawling around outside."

Pyrrha let out a quiet sigh and closed her eyes, "Yeah, it took us a while to get here without drawing their attention, especially since Jaune had to carry me. But I suppose you're right. We shouldn't take this good fortune for granted."

"Hey," Yang said, her voice uncharacteristically serious, "We made it through the hard part, didn't we? Sure, we're not in the best shape right now, but we've got a lot of smart people in Vale who can help patch us up once we're ready to get out of here. I bet Vahlen'll be able to fix things in the _real_ Medbay, and Bradford will just order the Temple Ship to swing around and extract us so we don't have to make a mad dash through the Grimm or whatever. It might take some time, but we'll get through this."

Pyrrha's hip beeped, and Jaune flipped open the pouch holding her scroll and pulled the device out to see why it was trying to alert them. It only took him a brief second before a smile crossed his face. "Nora and Ren are back in range. Lemme give them a call and see if they can join us here."

"Maybe Ren can help me patch you guys up." Samuelson added, "I'm doing the best I can, but I'm an engineer, not a doctor."

Jaune tapped the scroll and waited for his teammates to answer. With the CCTS down, he knew they had to be close enough for the peer-to-peer communications to work. Ren's face filled the screen, and Jaune could see the relief in his expression as he spoke, "You have no idea how good it felt to see your call. Are you and Pyrrha alright?"

"We're… uh… fine." Jaune glanced at Pyrrha to see her not glancing back at him, "We found Yang and part of her squad at the comm station, and we're taking some time to catch our breath. Do you think you can make your way here and regroup with us?"

"That sounds like a good idea. Give us some time. Neither of us are in the mood to wade through Grimm at the moment. We have a lot to tell you about, though."

Jaune laughed. "So do we, Ren. See you when you get here."

* * *

Dionicio sat up with a groan as his eyes slowly worked to unglue themselves. The throbbing headache pounding away in his skull was going to be a problem, but at least it meant he remained among the living, at least for a while longer.

"Lieutenant! Good to see you finally awake." While Nicho still couldn't see clearly, he recognized the voice as one of Gamma's Engineers, Poncho.

"Barely," Nicho moaned, "Since we're not dead, I'm guessing we managed to stick the landing?"

"And somehow managed to drive off the dragon in the process." Poncho shrugged, "I guess getting its stomach punched by the ship's bow during the crash landing was enough to finally convince it to get lost. Hopefully to go die in a hole somewhere."

That was one less threat to worry about, at least for now. The Lieutenant rubbed his eyes and started to get up. He'd rested long enough, now it was time to get a handle on his squad and figured out how to make himself useful. As embarrassing as it was to get knocked out during landfall, Nicho was proud of his team for pulling through without him. More than likely, Poncho assumed temporary command and kept the cogs moving while his CO went down for a quick nap.

"So where did we end up?"

Poncho shrugged, "Some forest a few klicks behind Beacon, I think. You can still see what's left of the tower thanks to the path we cleared through the trees."

Could've been better. Nicho recalled from Captain Rose's briefing on Remnant that the forests around Beacon were a combat training ground for students due to the population of Grimm that lurked within. The lack of gunfire from outside told the Lieutenant that nothing had come to investigate the crash yet.

"What about the prisoner?" A shot from the Arc Thrower was enough to keep aliens knocked out for a couple of hours, but all bets were off with anything Remnant. Especially tiny psychotic commandos.

Poncho nodded. "Good question. We found the ship's brig a little while ago, and one of the cells was still pretty well intact. Threw her in a few minutes before she came to, actually, so the timing worked out nicely. She did her weird cloaky thing almost as soon as she realized we had her in the cell, so we posted Socks outside to keep an eye on her." The Sergeant chuckled, "She was rather _shocked_ when she discovered that bioelectric skin has more uses than sensing the invisible."

"It's too early for puns, Sergeant." Nicho groaned. He stepped out of the makeshift infirmary/bunkroom with Poncho and got his first good look at the cruiser. Or rather, what was left of it. The ship had broken in half on impact, the navigation fins were wrecked, and twisted metal and sparking wires lay strewn about everywhere. Nicho noticed one of his operatives slowly walking around the cruiser's perimeter, likely in an effort to make a preliminary assessment of the exterior damage. She caught Nicho's eye and hustled over.

"I've only been out here for ten minutes, sir, and I can already tell you that this thing won't be airworthy for a while. I don't know if Ironwood wants his ship back, but he's going to need a team of technicians working around the clock to get this pieced back together, and the noise'll probably draw the Grimm before the job's done."

Nicho glanced at the damaged craft and nodded. He'd have time later to verify his subordinate's assessment, but his initial impression lined up with what she was saying. "Is there anything that's salvageable? Anything that we can present to Atlesian personnel to say 'sorry about your ship, but at least this survived the crash'?"

"Volt's group found what looks like a mech bay in the back half of the ship." Poncho answered, "It's pretty impressive, actually. I guess Atlas knew they needed a service center for all of their tin cans, and this ship filled that role. Even though the commandos dumped all of the 'bots during the battle, there's still a lot of nice hardware back there that I'm sure Ironwood will want back before he returns home to Atlas."

"Propulsion systems are trashed, though." The other operative added, "Looks like these ships run on the same gravity dust as the colosseum, and the main core is all cracked to hell and non-responsive to any preliminary diagnostic efforts."

So they had a Dead Ship situation on their hands. Damn. "And the command deck?"

"We uh… we did a pretty good job leveling that one, sir. There's a lot of scrap metal that's probably salvageable, but none of the system controls really survived."

Nicho figured as much. "Alright, I'm guessing you already made this clear to the team, Sergeant, but we have two priorities right now: first, we need to restore and fortify this ship as best we can. We have the little terror for Vahlen to interrogate, but no way to safely transport her, which means we're stuck here until we can arrange an extraction. And if we're stuck here, we better be damn well ready to repel any Grimm that decide to come poking around the smoking wreckage. I need two scouts securing a perimeter and developing defensive plans and countermeasures to prepare for any Grimm assaults. Bio troopers are to remain with the prisoner, and all others are to help clean up this mess so that it's easier for the Engineers to do their work.

"Which leads me to objective two: all technical personnel are to continue trying to salvage anything and everything possible. This includes anything that is even remotely related to communication tech so that we can work on reestablishing contact with Central. No real point in getting this ship looking pretty if nobody knows to look for us."

The two soldiers saluted and offered a synchronized, "Yes, sir."

"Good. Let's make it happen, team."

* * *

Coco sat at the top of Outpost Two with the rest of the Jaeger team. She volunteered herself for duty as part of the Safe Zone's preliminary response group, mostly to give herself something to do, but the lack of Grimm threats left her with a lot of thinking time on her hands, and the huntress found that her mind wandered to unpleasant thoughts all too easily.

She knew that she wasn't supposed to blame herself, that whoever was behind this would have found another way to kick off tonight's catastrophe if she hadn't played into their plans. But it didn't make the gutpunch feel any better. Thousands upon thousands of incidental casualties from all four kingdoms, Vale in ruins, the global communication system crippled from the loss of Beacon's tower…

And it all could be traced back to her lack of trigger discipline.

Yatsu was busy putting his superhuman strength to work by helping with the construction projects down below, and Velvet was putting on her best bedside manner for the wounded who desperately needed a friendly face and an assuring voice to help get them through their waking nightmare. Even Fox had offered his skills to help with the scouting parties looking for more survivors to bring back to the Safe Zone. That left Coco with a (admittedly badass) robot, an Atlas soldier, and a handful of of these XCOM operatives to keep her company.

So why was she here, really? Did she feel like she needed to atone for her fuck up? To fill a need to be doing something productive since the rest of her team was making themselves useful? Well, she wasn't feeling particularly useful right now, especially since there weren't any Grimm knocking on the outpost's front door. At least that would have given her an outlet to channel her frustration. Instead, even the Grimm decided to let Coco wallow in her misery and guilt while they roamed around doing whatever soulless monsters of the night do for fun.

"Hey."

Coco looked up to see one of the XCOM soldiers giving her a curious look. He continued, "I've seen a couple of thousand-yard stares in my time, and you've got the look of someone who needs to get a few things off her chest."

"You're not wrong." Coco admitted, "But I'm pretty sure the point of us being up here is to keep an eye out for danger."

" _Nothing will get past me._ " The mech said, " _Trust in my vigilance._ "

… Odd choice of words, but Coco wasn't about to quiz the railgun-toting robot in language arts. Besides, the soldier had asked her a question, and even the Atlas guard was looking curious now.

As if they didn't know.

"You're aware that my match at the arena kicked off this whole fiasco, right?" She patted her minigun, "I was trying to nail some speedy little ninja from Mistral when the arena shields… uh… went down."

"That was you?" The Atlas trooper asked, "Holy shit, I heard all the chaos over the radio, and-"

"Stow it, soldier." The operative said curtly. He turned back to Coco, "You holding up alright?"

These weren't a gaggle of adoring fans, so why lie?

"Not really."

The man nodded, expecting that answer, "Yeah. People say it gets easier with time, but that's not really true."

"What, you killed and injured hundreds in a colosseum fight, too?" Coco asked, her tone slightly sharper than intended.

"The scale was different, and the scenario was the exact opposite, actually, but the pain's about the same." He said, "I watched my sister die because of me."

Coco stared at him, waiting for an explanation. The operative obliged. "Mission was going straight to hell in a handbasket. I froze when I should have pulled the trigger. Watched my sister get gutted like a fish by a Berserker about six steps away from me a few seconds later. Our commanding officer managed to put the fucker down before it got to me, but there was nothing we could do for Adrienne other than take the body back home and salvage her gear."

The man's cavalier attitude left Coco slackjawed. How could he talk about watching his sister die in such a casual tone? Still, he continued. "The two of us were twins. Did everything together growing up. Went to school together. Joined the military together. Got accepted into the Marines together. Joined XCOM together…" He looked up at Coco and held her gaze, "We went on thirty ops together, had each other's backs through thick and thin while the world went to hell around us. Earned ourselves the nicknames Apollo and Artemis because we were a well-known duo. And I'm here while she's not because I panicked and couldn't pull a fuckin' trigger."

The group was silent for a bit. Coco glanced at the other XCOM operative, and his face told her that he'd heard this story before. Maybe he was there when it happened? Either way, she didn't see the operative giving his friend a pitying look or a comforting pat on the shoulder. He just kept an eye on Coco, probably to gauge her reaction. Well, might as well play along.

"So how did you deal with it?"

"Spent a lot of nights screaming in rage, punished myself with drills until I was satisfied." He said, "Took me a long time to come to terms with what I had done -or not done, as the case may be- but it did happen. Not a day goes by that I don't think about her, but it's for a better reason now."

Coco shrugged, "I appreciate you telling me this, but I'm not sure how I'm supposed to figure out how to cope with the guilt of starting one of the worst massacres in recent history."

"It's gonna suck." The operative admitted, "But there's nothing you can do to change that now, is there? In your line of work as well as ours, we learn to roll with the punches no matter how hard we get hit. You find a way to shake off the pain, or to focus the rage, and let yourself become the enemy's worst fucking nightmare. Do you know how many Grimm I killed tonight?"

Coco raised an eyebrow, "How many?"

"Fifty-four. Do you want to know why I know?"

"Why?"

"Because each pull of the trigger was for her." He said, "Each bullet between the eyes, each monster I put down was one more step on my road atonement. I will never fully forgive myself for what I've done, but I can take my guilt and mold it into a weapon that my commanding officer can point at the enemy. My shame gives me purpose, and I have learned that that is good enough for me."

The operative looked Coco square in the eye, "Your goal now is to find your own road."

"I… thanks, I guess."

She knew he was right, but she also knew that his story did nothing to directly help her come to terms with what had happened. She'd already known that she'd have to find a way to forgive herself, but it wasn't so much the 'what' that gave her problems as it was the 'how.' Then again, would it have really helped if he'd told her how he coped? Not only were their situations totally different, but why would something that worked for him work for her, too? Perhaps the suffering and the struggle to find a solution, a path, was part of the remedy, and skipping that with an easy out would make it impossible for Coco to recover.

But if this guy had a brutal story of loss and guilt, how many others from XCOM were like him? Like her? Maybe it would be helpful to spend some time with them. Heck, maybe they'd hook up her team with some of that sweet gear.

"So, uh… I'm not sure how long you guys are planning on sticking around… but you wouldn't happen to be interested in hiring a huntsmen team or two, would you?"

* * *

Bradford closed the door to the hotel suite and turned to face the assembled group. Vahlen, Shen, Annette, Ryder (in his civilian limbs), Ruby, Weiss, and a handful of XCOM officers all looked back at him patiently.

"Does anybody want to tell me exactly what the hell happened back there?" Bradford started, his gaze lingering on Ryder as he looked around the room, "Anyone?"

Ryder sighed. "I'll explain on Penny's behalf, given that she's not able to tell you herself. Short answer is that she doesn't trust her old platform now that we've seen it is vulnerable to intrusion. Sure, her father would have tried to upgrade it with protective countermeasures as soon as she got home, but Penny one-point-oh was developed in nearly total secret with top-of-the-line tech. If whoever was responsible could hack her once, why couldn't they do it again?

"She knows that whoever did this has no knowledge of Terran technology, and would be unable to account for any countermeasures developed by Vahlen and Shen. So until they've had a chance to beef up the hardware's protection, she doesn't want it to be anywhere near her father in case she got hijacked again."

"And that wouldn't have been good enough for Ironwood." Bradford sighed, "So the best course of action is to pretend that the platform is gone."

"Damn, robokid is smarter than I originally gave credit for." Qrow laughed.

Ryder raised an eyebrow, "You talking about me or Penny?"

"Both?"

"Maybe she'll try to convince her father to upload her into a less dangerous body in the meantime." Weiss mused, "Then the Black Queen wouldn't have to reason to hack her, or Penny wouldn't be able to do any damage if she did get hacked."

"Bingo." Ryder answered, "So now that we have that sorted out, it sounds like we have some other issues that we need to address?"

"The evac plan?" Bradford asked, "Yeah, that was next on my list."

"We could pull a couple of our scouting parties and have them work with Atlas to establish a safe route for survivors." Ruby suggested, "I know it's a long walk from our camp to theirs, but Snipers could provide overlapping fields of fire, and we have a couple of huntsmen teams that can use their mobility to pounce on any contacts before they get to the civilians."

"That would be more efficient than having our squads escort only a couple of groups at a time." Bradford agreed.

Annette nodded her approval of the plan, "The situation here is secure enough where we can afford to reduce the number of operatives on the perimeter and use them to help establish the travel route."

Bradford looked over at Shen, "Can you work with the Atlas soldiers to set up a line of communication with Ironwood to keep him advised of the numbers we're sending his way?"

"Of course. It would also help if we had a rough idea of the numbers." Shen looked at Weiss, "Miss Schnee, I believe you've been assisting with our Lost and Found operation?"

Weiss checked her scroll, "Latest count of non-Valean refugees just passed two thousand. And that's only the ones that have both made it to the Safe Zone and who have registered with our database. That number continues to grow as we process more people."

"Christ." Bradford groaned, "Have we heard anything from, or even about, Vale's government and its response to this mess? I get that Atlas was handling the security for the festival, but this crisis is going well beyond that now."

Glynda shook her head, "I haven't heard anything from Vale's council, though perhaps we can attribute that to the loss of the tower. Still, you think they would have found _some_ way to get a message or orders through."

"There's been some radio chatter about several outposts established by Vale's militia and engineer corps in the other districts, supported by full-fledged huntsmen teams." Fonseca added, "We've been coordinating with them in our effort to fully canvas the city, but they're operating on pre-established crisis protocols. As far as we know, they haven't heard anything from Vale's leadership, either."

"Do you think sabotage is a possibility?" Another officer asked, "If long-term destabilization was an objective for whoever did this, then assassinating a couple of top officials is a hell of a way to keep that going."

"And further cripple an already suffering Vale." Qrow agreed, "It's something I would do in their position."

"We need to find out. Quickly." Bradford said. He could already see the geopolitical threads unraveling in the wake of this disaster. Cutting off the head of one of the only four main governing bodies on Remnant sounded like chaos waiting to happen.

"After we search Beacon for our own MIA." Ruby reminded him.

Bradford nodded. "That is priority number one once we've established the travel route for the refugees, especially in light of Major Durand's observation that the Grimm appear to be drawn to the school. Between our own forces and the students that have gathered to help us, I don't doubt we'll have enough people to form a sortie and recover your sister's team, JNPR, and anyone else we find. I'll leave it to you, Captain, to pick your squad for the op."

"Well I've already found squadmate numero uno." Ruby said with a nudge to Weiss, "We'll get the band back together again, do a little recon, and hopefully make some sense out of this mess."

Weiss shifted uncomfortably, "Ah, actually… I was, um, sort of thinking about what Ironwood said to me earlier…"

Ruby gave her partner a strange look, "Seriously? You want to go back to your dad?"

"Of course I don't!" Weiss almost snapped, "Every day that I've been out of his shadow has shown me how oppressive my life was before. And he called me almost _daily_ during the tournament asking if I would reconsider my choice about training at Atlas, because obviously he wants me on a shorter leash and going to school somewhere where he could keep tabs on me. But I'm trying to look at the bigger picture here, Ruby."

"The bigger picture is that we need to figure out what's going on." Ruby answered, "Together."

Weiss sighed, "Not all the answers are going to be here in Vale. If there's something to be found in Atlas, then someone needs to find it. And if _I_ can find it by sucking up to my dad and getting access to his network of resources back home, then so be it."

"And besides, could you imagine the stink that ol' Mustache would raise when Ironwood came home and told him that his little sweet daughter blew him off for some loonies in Vale?" Qrow laughed before offering a nod to Weiss, "But seriously, it takes guts to do what you're doing. As much as my niece hates to admit it, it's the right move."

And in that moment, Bradford made a decision. "The good news is that you won't be going alone."

"Don't tell me that you're coming, too." Weiss said, incredulous.

"Not me," Bradford said with a shake of his head, "But I'll be damned if I let one of my top soldiers head out into danger without some backup. You know that a number of our operatives have experience with covert operations from our efforts to deal with EXALT. I'll be identifying and dispatching a trio of our best to blend in with the refugees seeking passage to Atlas. They'll act like they don't know you, of course, but there are ways to make contact without arousing suspicion."

"Might be a good idea to insert some of our operatives into the other kingdoms as well." Annette suggested, "Try to establish a foothold and work to maintain stability among the populace."

"Agreed. We know huntsmen students from the various regions, and I don't think it would take much convincing for them to play host to some of our operatives and help them settle in and get to work."

Glynda made a few keystrokes on her scroll and scanned through a list of names, "Mistral will be easy, you will have both SSSN and ABRN from that region. Vacuo… aside from mister Wukong, I don't believe we've acquainted ourselves with any of their student representatives. JNPR did face off against BRNZ in the preliminaries, so that might be a possible avenue." She looked up from her scroll and nodded, "They are one of the teams working with our Safe Zone, and have been involved with the Search and Rescue scouting patrols."

"Then we'll brief some of our operatives and have them try to work the BRNZ angle. If that fails, we can tap SSSN for our Vacuo team and use ABRN for Mistral."

"I'm guessing our operatives are going to need documentation when they try to enter the other kingdoms." Ryder commented, glancing at Qrow, "That's up your alley, isn't it?"

Qrow shrugged, "Something like that."

"Sounds like we've got our work cut out for us." Bradford looked around the room, and was pleased to see a group of determined faces staring back at him, "We best get to it."


	25. All In

A/N: So I like to think that, while I'm forcing you all to suffer through these long gaps between updates, I'm making up for it by posting large chapters. I think this one might seriously be my largest one yet.

* * *

 _3 minutes to Amity landfall_

"Okay, we gotta haul ass _now_."

After the somber conversation between the Amity team and Central, the sudden change in the Beagle's tone startled Dr. Richard Tygan. And if that hadn't, the Captain's vice-grip on his arm did the trick as Tygan felt himself get yanked towards the doorway leading out of the control room and into the maintenance hallway. Debris littered the floor and stuck out from the walls while pockets of flame added a layer of hazy smoke that floated just below the ceiling.

"But… the propulsion burn… we've-"

"-done everything we can, doctor." Kelly finished as she followed the two men out the door, "It sounds like the Captain doesn't think we're dead men walking."

"God damn right I don't."

Beagle let go of Tygan's arm and instead put a firm hand on his back as they ran down the shattered corridor. The propulsion burn had nearly torn the station apart with the kinetic energy spike suddenly introduced into its structural members. Red lights flashed intermittently along the walls and klaxons blared as Amity begged for its final guests to get the hell out of Dodge.

"Mechs!" Kelly shouted as they rounded the corner onto another long stretch of their steel prison, and she tore a hole through the first one with her shotgun. Beagle swore and shoved Tygan behind a pile of rubble before he felt a trio of bullets slam into his armored back. The Lieutenant's shotgun barked again, and the second mech went down.

"We don't have time for this shit." Beagle growled, and he grabbed Tygan again, "Where the fuck's our backup?"

Jane raised eye eyebrow as she kept her shotgun trained ahead of the group while they ran. The maze of access tunnels in the underbelly of the stadium were hard enough to navigate the first time around; the flashing lights, the wailing sirens, and the growing smoke made it all but impossible now. If Beagle had an ace up his sleeve… "You mean the engineers? How are they supposed to find us?"

"Clearly you have a lot to learn about how Mac and I operate."

"Well why haven't you-?"

"-tried using comms?" Beagle shook his head as they continued to dance around the patches of fire in their race down the hallway, "Effective immediately following my last message to Central, we've gone dark."

The station groaned, and Tygan narrowly dodged a falling access panel cover thanks to a timely shove from the Captain, "The Queen…"

"Now you're getting it." Beagle said with a grin, "Foresta's power surge pretty much borked every non-propulsion system on Amity, so the worm is blind now."

Two more mechs stomped into view, but Tygan's armed escort was ready this time to put them down before they had the chance to fire off a single shot. They barrelled through the next door and into a large storage warehouse stacked high with crates upon crates of food and souvenirs for the tournament-goers.

"So how is Mac supposed to find you if we can't communicate?" Jane asked.

"He's an Engineer, and he knows that I suffer from The Curse. He improvised."

The station rumbled again, though more deeply and with greater force than the previous instances. The sound of Dust cracking and metal rending echoed throughout the room in response. When the metal beneath their feet began to screech, the trio skidded to a halt.

"That… can't be good." Jane commented as pinging and popping sounds added themselves to the cacophony.

The floor started to ripple, and Beagle backed up towards the wall. "C'mon, Mac…"

Like a weak seam torn apart, a chasm broke open on one end of the warehouse and started to rapidly propagate towards Beagle's group. Tygan had the wherewithal to follow the lead of his guardians and press himself against the box wall next to Jane as the fracture finished its journey and tore the room wide open. A torrent of air poured into the room and boxes toppled over as the sudden depressurization sucked them out through the fissure and into what Beagle could only assume was the outside air.

"So this curse that you and your friends speak of…" Tygan yelled over the noise of the gale, flinching as a box fell over a few inches to his right..

"I guess developing a sense of sarcasm moments before death is better than never, Doc." Beagle shot back. The metal floor continued to tear away as more boxes and debris crashed into the wound and Amity tore itself further and further apart apart. Beagle could now easily see through the floor and into the night sky as it raced past them. What he didn't expect to see, however, was a grappling hook penetrate into the decaying floor, followed by two more.

"Took you long e-fucking-nough." He almost laughed as MacAuley, Altinsoy, and Senchin zipped into the warehouse.

"Sen, get the Doc. Altinsoy, you've got the Lieutenant." MacAuley grinned at Beagle, "I'll deal with our whiny man-baby of a Captain."

The Engineers wasted no time in fastening themselves to their charges before falling back through the gap in the floor and deploying their Icarus hardware once they cleared the station. As the Colosseum gained some distance on the fliers, Beagle noticed that they weren't clear of the danger yet. Looking up, a veritable hailstorm of debris and detritus broke away from Amity and careened towards them as the station rumbled and shook in its death throes.

"We'll get torn apart if we stay in the debris field!" Altinsoy shouted.

MacAuley couldn't agree more, "If we stick close to the station, we can probably fly in under all of the trash and ride this sucker to the ground."

The other two engineers nodded in agreement, and the three pilots shot their grapples out towards the retreating station and reeled themselves close. Even so, shattered pieces of supercharged gravity Dust detonated at haphazard intervals, creating instantaneous spikes of gravitational energy and presenting a new problem for the flight crew. The random pulses pulled nearby debris into chaotic implosions that made it even more difficult for the pilots to identify immediate threats that needed to be dodged as they trailed just behind the descending station.

"Son of bitch!" Senchin hissed as a serrated plate ripped across his bicep. MacAuley saw the metal also crash into Senchin's wing, but was pleased when he saw that the reinforced fabric didn't tear. The burly engineer spooled out more of his grapple line and dropped altitude with Tygan to bank hard in an effort to break out of the projected path of the falling debris field. Altinsoy and MacAuley followed suit, though not before they suffered a few nicks and dings of their own.

"Man, this shit hurts." Mac whined, rubbing his neck where a piece of hard concrete beaned him.

"Why are we still here?" Tygan asked, clearly unnerved by their high-stakes game of dodgeball, "Wouldn't it be safer to fly away at a right angle to avoid the field and-"

"And what?" Beagle countered, "Land somewhere in a dark forest crawling with Grimm as we try to make our way back to Vale? Or to glide back through the Nevermore and Griffon-infested skies, hoping to dodge death long enough to regroup with Central?"

"What do you suggest then?" Tygan asked. MacAuley had to resist rolling his eyes at the scientist's hurt tone after his idea was shot down so quickly.

Senchin answered the question, "Stick with the station. The Grimm won't try to brave the debris field to get to us, and we can hole up in the ruins while you help us look for some answers."

"Answers? To what?!"

"You're not the least bit curious how our infectious friend managed to make everything go tits-up?" MacAuley asked, "Or if we can find something, anything, in this hunk of junk that might help us defend against another cyber intrusion somewhere further down the line?"

"Is that really our job, though?" Jane asked.

Kelly was starting to grow on Mac, but he balked at the short-sightedness of her question. "Was it really our job to research the Hyperwave Relay? Or the Ethereal Device? Did we really need to cut the corpses open and see what made them tick? Why didn't we just settle for pointing our guns at the ayys and pulling the trigger until they stopped moving?"

"Look out!" Altinsoy shouted. The others looked directly ahead to see a large chunk of Dust break free from the main crystal and sail towards them. They rolled out of the way and looked back in time to see a piece of concrete whiz by and slam into the crystal. The impact catalyzed the gravity well implosion the group had already experienced, but on a much larger scale. All three pairs were yanked towards the reaction's epicenter, and a trio of grunts echoed into the night as the grapple lines pulled taught on the engineers.

MacAuley felt the loud _crack_ as his hook broke free. Senchin tried to catch his friend, but MacAuley slipped through his fingers and tumbled into the debris field with Beagle and upwards as gravitational aftershocks introduced more chaos into the storm of iron. Senchin and Altinsoy shared a nod, disengaged their grapples, and fell back to rescue their squadmate. Senchin wrapped himself protectively around Tygan while Altinsoy maneuvered herself underneath MacAuley so he could use her wings to break out of his death spiral and regain his bearings.

Where before they had been flying fairly level with the crystal formation at the bottom of the station, MacAuley's trip through the gravity pulse had pulled them all upwards while Amity continued to travel down. As debris once again rained around them, Mac could see over the top of the station and realized with no small sense of concern that it was headed towards a cliff.

A large piece of rebar slammed into Jane's chest, and she grunted in pain, "This is insane!"

"It's about to get worse." MacAuley said, gesturing towards the Colosseum as he finally regained control of his motion, "Look."

The rescue effort had put a decent amount of space between the fliers and the station, offering the team a view that showed Amity was barely hanging on by the proverbial thread as its crystal formation began to graze the treeline. Like the Titanic moments before it split in two, a deep crack echoed through the sky, followed by one final explosion as the massive structure broke apart. While the main crystal didn't implode, its final energy flare still tugged all the airborne debris (biological and otherwise) down and towards the Colosseum.

"Fucking hell…" Altinsoy groaned.

MacAuley ducked, dipped, and dove as he piloted his suit out of the way of falling concrete on its way back towards the station. While Remnant's true gravity eventually overpowered the main crystal's impulse, the flare had triggered all the smaller fragments in the debris field and had turned the sky into a maelstrom of serrated steel and stone. MacAuley didn't see the steel beam coming in from his four o'clock until it clipped his leg and sent him reeling.

A thunderous _boom_ rolled through the air, and MacAuley didn't have to look to know that the station had finally slammed into the ground.

"You're free to stop spinning any day now, Mac." Beagle commented.

"Oh fuck off." MacAuley growled, "Your fat ass isn't making this any easier."

"Your fat ass isn't making this any easier…?"

MacAuley sighed, "… Sir."

"Thank you."

More concrete peppered his armor as MacAuley fought with his wings. Sounds of splintering wood and groaning metal rose up from below as the earth tried to slow the sliding colosseum to its final rest. A hand came out of nowhere to catch Beagle's and they saw Kelly raising an amused eyebrow while Altinsoy looked ahead for more danger.

"So does this mean the beers you owe me got upgraded into a case, or…?"

"That crystal still looks unstable." Tygan shouted as he and Senchin rejoined the formation, "I suggest we brace for the worst in case it detonates again."

MacAuley righted himself a second time and got his first good look at the wreckage. The Colosseum lay scattered near the edge of the large cliff face Mac had spotted earlier, with several sections of steel hanging off of the precipice. A hundred feet below them, a massive corridor of trees lay flattened and destroyed. The Engineer could only guess how much force Amity produced when it finally crashed. Just as Tygan had noted, the main Dust crystal (now split into two uneven halves) still glowed with energy.

"Easy does it, then." MacAuley answered. They still weren't out of the debris field yet, thanks to the random gravity wells keeping the junk up in the air far longer than naturally possible. Up ahead, another fragment detonated, sucking in a debris field and flinging it towards the ruined Colosseum. A few seconds later, a second fragment detonated and pulled the debris further along. Then a third. And a fourth.

"Ooohhh that can't be good." Kelly muttered.

"It appears that the conditions are just right for a chain reaction." Tygan mused, "Assuming the crystals fell off at a regular pace, each detonation appears to be priming the next one while pulling the rest-"

"Yeah, Vahlen was bad enough with that science shit when we had aliens trying to murder us." Beagle interrupted, "We get the idea."

While the group was far enough back to avoid the effects of the gravity chain, they could clearly see as each fragment detonated closer and closer to the main crystal.

"Nope. No way is my luck _so insanely shitty_ that this bullshit is going to happen. I refuse to believe it."

"If we get through this, Captain, I'm demanding a case from you, too."

"Hope you like Foster's, then."

"Everybody hold on!"

One final fragment detonated, and a flash of energy rippled through the major crystalline structure. Then the ripple reversed and all hell broke loose. The team was dragged into the gravity well along with the rest of the flying shrapnel. Their preparation for the pulse helped keep them from tumbling out of control, but the rapid speed gain pushed the Icarus equipment to its limits. MacAuley struggled to stay steady in the air stream as wind roared in his ears and his vision slowly narrowed from the g-force. Additional gravity implosions peppered the descent towards the Colosseum, but the momentum caused by the main crystal dwarfed whatever energy the microimplosions created.

The massive spike in forward momentum caused by the gravity pulse caused the fliers to sail right past the Colosseum and over the cliffside that easily dropped a thousand feet into a vast valley below. Unfortunately, the pulse also pulled the debris field over the edge as well.

"Taking hits!" Senchin warned, though he wasn't the only one. Metal and grit lacerated MacAuley's armor and just as the group was starting to get their speed under control, he saw an iron javelin blow right through Altinsoy's wing.

"Fuck!"

While the damage to her wing didn't cause Altinsoy to drop out of the sky, MacAuley could see that the asymmetrical friction from the tear was causing her to start rotating.

"Altinsoy, drop your wings!" Beagle ordered, "Senchin, get under Kelly while I hold on from above!"

The operatives sprung into action. Altinsoy retracted her ruined wings while MacAuley flew in close enough to let Beagle grab the Engineer by her waist. Senchin positioned himself underneath Jane, who held onto the Russian's shoulders. The group carefully banked into a wide u-turn and shot back towards their derelict target.

"We're still coming in pretty hot." The Lieutenant observed, "I'm not sure how we're going to stick this landing."

"Pure luck."

"I don't want to hear that coming from you."

MacAuley chuckled, "Damn, Beags, it's like we're back on ops with Strike Five."

"If we overshoot the Colosseum to bleed off more of our speed with a gradual descent, I believe we can still land safely in our current configuration."

"Doc's got a pretty good point, actually."

With the danger of debris mostly gone, the group leveled out and soared back over the massive scar left behind by Amity. MacAuley and Senchin coordinated a wide bank and brought the formation back around to the Colosseum for a second pass. The gravity burst had jumbled Amity's remains, throwing some of the wreck off the cliff while collapsing a large swath of trees into what remained up top. Smoke plumed out of and around the station, and MacAuley wondered how much of that was from Amity itself and how much was the new kindling. His thoughts were cut short when another low hum reached his ears.

Beagle only had time to utter a single "Why" before the second half of the crystal thrummed with energy and a (thankfully smaller) gravity well pulled the team into the wreckage. Beagle lost his grip on Altinsoy moments before MacAuley slammed into a section of the Colosseum's exterior and expelled all the air from his lungs as the Captain sandwiched him against the metal surface. As his vision went dark, MacAuley heard two other grunts nearby.

"At least… we made it." He wheezed. MacAuley felt Beagle unclip himself, and the loss of weight as the Captain rolled off made it much easier to breathe, but none of that really mattered to the Engineer for the moment. Because while his entire body ached, and he had no idea how many major injuries he sustained over the last five minutes, he knew one thing for certain.

He was alive.

* * *

" _Beowolves sighted to the north of Sector Three. Durand, that's you._ "

"Yep." Annette acknowledged, "We'll be fast and silent."

She broke away from the refugee trail with her two squadmates and ABRN, weapons ready to eliminate the threat before it got close to the wounded that slowly limped their way through the war-torn city streets. Annette led the squad with Arslan down the main thoroughfare while Reese banked into an alley to scout out their flank and the other XCOM operatives took up the rear with Bolin and Nadir.

"You're not huntsmen." Arslan said. It wasn't a question, and it wasn't tentative. Annette glanced over to see the young woman side-eying her.

"Nope."

" _We see you, Major. Hang a right, and you'll see the target about a block and a half away._ "

The group rounded the corner and immediately locked onto the pack of Beowolves prowling the street. The monsters weren't sprinting towards the refugee trail, but they were moving in that direction, clearly drawn by the mixture of sorrow and terror.

"Whiskey, Zip: flank right and ready yourselves to mop up anything that gets past us. Keep weaponsfire to a minimum." Annette commanded, "Bolin, Nadir: listen to your leader."

Arslan signaled for them to move up with the two women before she returned to their conversation, "So why lie?"

"Helluva lot easier than explaining that we're transdimensional soldiers coming off of a war where the fate of our species was literally hanging in the balance. Did you already forget about the portal that deployed more of our operatives into Amity's arena?" Annette answered, sword at the ready, "Besides, I'm training to be a huntress, so it's really only a half-lie when you think about it."

The monsters finally took notice of the group running at them and changed their course to meet the inbound assailants. Arslan hooked one of the wolves by its ankle and tipped the monster into its companions while Bolin leapt overhead and slammed his staff down upon the helpless monster's head. With the rest of the pack momentarily stunned by the force of the huntsman's blow, Annette impaled-then-decapitated one on her dash through the mass of Grimm. She readied _La Volonté_ as one of the Beowolves raised a claw to attack, but the blur of a serrated hoverboard ripped the creature's flank wide open.

Arslan, evidently, had decided their conversation still wasn't over, "Even so, it's wrong for you to make yourself out to be someone you're not. How can I trust anything you say now?"

Switching her weapon back into a shotgun, Annette slammed the muzzle against the chest of another Beowolf and pulled the trigger. The force of the muffled explosion blasted the monster backwards and knocked it into its brother, allowing Arslan to palm strike its head into fine, black and red mist.

"You don't have to." Annette said with a shrug as she sized up the remaining contacts, "But you can bet your ass that every single operative has a huge fucking debt to pay back to Ruby and her crew." She lunged past the claws of another Beowolf and thrust the tip of her blade into its leg. The Grimm reared back to let out a pained howl, but Arslan shoulder-checked it in the chest, grabbed it by the skull, and threw it over her shoulder before slamming it into the ground. Annette shoved her sword into its throat and pulled the blade all the way down to its stomach. "And I can speak confidently for _all_ of them when I say that we plan to pay that debt back in full."

A dulled _crack_ from behind announced that Bolin and Reese had taken care of the final two monsters.

"…Fair enough." Arslan answered as the rest of the squad moved in to regroup.

Annette didn't seem impressed by her answer, "The real question is this: are you dedicated enough to protecting the people relying on you that you are willing to do everything you can for them? Or are you going to let petty grudges hold you back?"

"I think you already know the answer to that, Durand."

"Good answer." Annette keyed her comm, " _Eagle-Gamma, this is Dagger-Alpha. All contacts down, and we are returning to the convoy._ "

* * *

"Copy that, Dagger-Alpha."

Desperado leaned back in his makeshift seat atop the high-rise where he watched over the survivor convoy with his three companions. Master Sergeant Pablo '3-13' Ortega stood side-by-side with a Vacuan huntress-in-training, May Zedong, both cradling their respective sniper rifles while sweeping Eagle-Gamma's section of the ruined city for any monsters that might threaten the refugees. While Desperado didn't have the hardware to join in on their sharpshooting party, he was stationed with one of the Eagle teams along with Brawnz Ni to provide spotting support and close-range firepower in the unlikely event of an ambush. For now, though, he was enjoying the banter taking place between the two marksmen.

"That's a pretty sick rifle you've got there." Ortega commented, "I'm guessing it follows standard huntsman procedure and has some sort of melee function."

May nodded, still scanning for threats, "Got an axe blade in the stock, yeah. It's pretty handy when I need to pull myself up to a good vantage point."

"Grappling hooks are so much easier, though. I'll try to hook you up with a test run of an Icarus suit when things calm down so you can give it a go." Something caught Ortega's eye. He zeroed in on it with his scope for a moment before nudging May. "Got a pair of Ursa down by the hospital. They're not moving towards the evac route, but a pack of wolves is headed in their direction."

"Wouldn't want them to group up, now would we?" May commented as she followed Ortega's directions to locate the contacts. "Good thing neither one is an Alpha."

"Or one of those Beringel. Think we can bag a couple of bears before they know what hit 'em?"

"Depends," May answered with a sly grin, "You sure you could score a headshot at this range?"

"Only one way for you to find out." Ortega answered, matching her grin with one of his own, "I'm more worried about you, though: what kind of experience do you have drilling your target from seven blocks away?"

"You haven't seen May in combat, have you?" Brawnz chuckled, "May doesn't miss."

"Especially when I don't have a certain Nikos trying to hunt me down." May muttered, "Ready when you are."

Desperado and Brawnz watched as the two marksmen took turns with the rangefinder to double-check each others' readings. They settled in with their rifles, adjusted their equipment, and took a moment to slow their breathing and observe the movements of their marks.

"Alley oop." Both sniper rifles barked milliseconds after one another, and the two snipers watched both of the lumbering Grimm reel back as the ballistic rounds slammed into their bone plates and ripped through their skulls with explosive force.

As the lifeless bodies fell to the street and slowly dissolved, the two marksmen shared an exuberant high-five. Brawnz glanced over at Desperado. "Color me impressed. I didn't know Vale fields snipers that could pull that off."

Time for part two of why Bradford had assigned him to this outpost.

"They don't, as far as I know." Desperado answered, "We're not really Valean."

"Mistrali?" Brawnz asked, eyebrow raised, "Because you're definitely not from Vacuo, and you don't look like any Atlesian soldier I've ever seen."

Ortega shook his head with a laugh, "Why don't you two sit down and have a chat with Desperado? I can keep an eye on the roads while he explains who we really are."

"And why we're here." Desperado added, pleased to see that Ortega's comment had sparked a look of curiosity from Ni and Zedong, "Because that's really the important matter at hand. And if you're training to be huntsmen for all the right reasons, you'll want to listen carefully."

* * *

"I'm seeing smoke through the trees up ahead." Mtambe noted, "You think it's the ship?"

"Has to be." Blake answered. She'd spotted the smoke a few minutes prior (on account of her Remnant agility allowing Blake to traverse the Emerald Forest through the trees), but didn't want to say anything to her squadmate until she knew for certain that their objective was the source. Still, the damaged foliage and the occasional scrap of twisted hardware offered strong evidence to support their suspicions.

The trip through the forest had been slow. Blake had to take her time to make sure she steered her companion clear of any threats because of the heightened Grimm activity, and pulling that off with only a single arm wasn't doing her any favors, either. Mtambe's Icarus equipment would allow him to evade in a pinch, but quieter was obviously better. She'd heard several packs of Beowolves and the occasional Ursa stomping around, but nothing more dangerous as of yet. If Blake wasn't careful, however, that could change faster than she could say "Enemy contacts sighted."

The engineer looked up into the sky through the gaps in the tree cover, "No sign of the dragon, though. You said it was latched onto the ship, right?"

Blake nodded. Either the dragon had flown off before they had a chance to go on their scouting run (though Blake was sure she would have heard it), or the cruiser team had somehow pulled off a miracle and killed it. Either way, she wasn't going to complain about missing out on the 'opportunity' to go toe-to-toe with that demonic monstrosity. After another minute of navigation, the tree cover cleared away and completely confirmed that Blake and Mtambe had found what they were after. Long furrows scarred the ground reminding Blake of the typical markings of a splashed UFO. Shattered trees piled around a massive object up ahead, with the smoke Blake had seen slowly rising above the crash site.

"Gotta be it." Mtambe muttered as Blake landed on the ground next to him.

"We should approach with stealth." Blake advised, "We don't know if our guys are in control or if they failed to take out whoever turned the ship rogue in the first place."

The duo moved slowly through the trees towards the giant mess at the end of the crashway. Blake's superior hearing picked up faint sounds of movement, mutterings, and mechanical activity, though she needed to get closer to pick up on what the talkers were actually saying. Unfortunately, all the sound stopped a few seconds later.

 _Stay low._ She signaled to Mtambe. Somehow, the people at the crash site had detected their presence. Blake stood motionless, waiting for the noise to pick up again before daring to move. Powerless to detect anything on his own, Mtambe kept his eyes on Blake and waited for her command. Both of them jumped slightly at the sound of five bullets punching into the wood next to them.

 _Tink tink tinktink tink._

Blake raised an eyebrow at Mtambe, but the Engineer quickly pulled out his pistol and smacked it against the tree twice.

 _Thunk thunk._

A face poked through the foliage seconds later, a weary smile indicating just how relieved the operative was to come across friendly contacts.

"I don't know who's out there," The soldier said, trying to scan the trees for the newcomers, "But I'm not about to complain about getting found by a couple of allies. Come on in."

* * *

"Weiss, wait."

Weiss stopped following the latest batch of refugees on their way to the edge of the Safe zone and turned around to watch Ruby stride towards her from across the street.

"I know you're not about to ask me to stay." Weiss said as Ruby took the last couple of steps towards her best friend, "Because the Ruby I know would respect my decision even if it's not the one she wants."

Ruby smiled, "It's a good thing you know me. I just wanted to say bye before you left."

"And I wanted to avoid the emotional stuff." Weiss answered with an eyeroll. Sticking with her decision to go home to her father was hard enough. Getting a tearful sendoff from Ruby would make it all but impossible.

"Not even a hug?"

Weiss sighed, "Just a quick one."

Ruby zipped into an embrace without a word and let out a happy hum when Weiss hugged her back. True to her word, Ruby only held on for a couple of seconds before letting go.

"I don't know what's going on with this whole mess, but if there's one thing I _do_ know, it's this: nobody is more qualified to scare up some answers in Atlas than Weiss Schnee. And you can bet your butt that we're going to be dropping by your neck of the woods once we've got things sorted out around here to see what you've found and if there's anything we can do to help. You just gotta stay safe until the cavalry arrives." Ruby grinned and nudged her partner in the ribs, "That's me, by the way. I'm the cavalry."

"Yes, I figured that one out all by myself, thanks." Weiss's tone was sarcastic, but the smirk playing across her lips revealed how she really felt about getting one last dose of Ruby's humor for the forseeable future, "Same goes for you. Whoever is doing this probably isn't done with Vale just yet. If I have to wait for the cavalry, then she better damn well make sure she's coming."

The two of them grew silent, staring at each other while activity swirled all around them. Finally, Weiss thought of one more thing to ask. "Hey Ruby?"

"Hmm?"

"Would you do me a favor and keep Vahlen company? I know she can be a bit... weird sometimes, but it really helps when she's got a friend around. I know she's got Bradford and Shen, but..."

"... she's going to miss you." Ruby finished. She snapped a sharp salute, "You can count on me, and that's a promise!"

Weiss nodded, though it didn't take a mind reader to tell that she was growing distracted "That's good. Listen, I should probably get going now. I don't know how long General Ironwood is going to wait before he comes back to see if I've made up my mind or not. I don't know if having another encounter between him and Bradford is a good idea right now."

"Yeah, that makes sense." Ruby agreed, "I'm sure the General means well and is concerned about the safety of all the civilians, but something about Central just pushes his buttons. Alright. Take care, Weiss. And don't forget: I _will_ be seeing you in Atlas."

Weiss shouldered her pack and turned to leave, but not before glancing at Ruby one final time, "I'm counting on it."

As Ruby watched her best friend fade into the crowd of refugees, Bradford joined her at the curb. They stood in silence for a minute before Bradford spoke.

"You're going to miss her, aren't you?"

Ruby snorted, "I can't possibly imagine what gave that away."

"At least she'll have backup." Bradford offered, "We're dispatching covert operatives to all three kingdoms, but I made sure to send the best to Atlas."

"Yeah, about that… aren't XCOM operatives infamously bad at the whole 'covert' part of their operations?" Ruby asked.

Bradford almost choked, "Come again?"

Ruby shrugged, "Maybe it was just me, but all I remember from the covert operations is having to bail out the spooks time and again after EXALT caught on to their shenanigans before they could call for extraction. Did they ever actually complete a mission without a hitch?"

"Oh, so it's going to be like that, is it?" Bradford asked, "Because I've got one question for you: ever heard of Iago van Doorn?"

"Who?"

"Exactly." Ruby's face told Bradford that she expected more out of an explanation, and he couldn't help but smirk, "You ever wonder why EXALT just sort of… collapsed towards the end of the war? All of those 'bungled' operations that you apparently enjoy harping on gave us enough intel to locate their HQ and their leader… and assassinate him in one, quiet black op."

Ruby grew quiet while she processed Bradford's comments before she offered the Central Officer an incredulous look, "You're telling me that The General had an evil relative that was the kingpin for Earth's greatest terrorist organization?"

"A half brother." Bradford corrected, "But yes. And Van Doorn himself was the one to pull the trigger."

"Why did I never hear about this?" Ruby demanded.

Bradford's smirk broke out into a grin. "Because the spooks are actually good at their jobs. C'mon, you've got a squad waiting for a different sort of extraction op. I suggest you get to it."

* * *

Pyrrha instinctively tried to tense up as she heard the quiet hiss of the medikit, her mind anticipating the uncomfortably cold sensation of the restorative aerosol as it contacted her skin. Instead, she felt the familiar sensation of literally nothing at all as Ren worked to patch her up as best as he could. Nora sat next to Yang and watched in silence while Jaune helped by shifting Pyrrha according to Ren's directions. Samuelson had gone up to the roof to check on some equipment he and Mtambe had set up before the latter had left with Blake on their recon operation.

After a few minutes of work, Jaune sat Pyrrha back down into a comfortable reclining position while Ren took stock of his medical supplies.

"That should help with a lot of your more mundane injuries." Ren said after he finished stowing his gear, "You had a lot of open wounds, among other things, some of which were starting to become infected. It's likely that they would have been fine once your Aura starts to heal them, but there's no sense taking unnecessary risks."

Speaking of her Aura… "And the paralysis?" Pyrrha asked.

Ren nodded. "You have some clear damage at several points along your spine. My guess is that you tore a couple of critical nerves at just the wrong spot when you fell. Vahlen will likely be able to give you a more detailed answer once we get back to the ship."

"Hopefully she can find a way to fix it, too," Pyrrha sighed, "Since it looks like my Aura doesn't feel like being particularly helpful at the moment."

"It's extremely rare, though not completely unheard of, for this to happen." Ren told her, "I've only read about a handful of instances myself. The amount of information is frustratingly scarce, but I was able to determine that they all involved catastrophic damage to the individual, which evidently shocked the Aura into inaction."

Jaune looked up, "How long did they take to recover?"

"I never found out." Ren admitted, "You would think that long-term Aura loss would be a heavily researched and documented phenomenon, but I haven't been able to find any papers, studies, or articles on the subject. Then again, it was always more of a passing curiosity than something I had a vested need in learning about."

"Maybe it was something that woman did. You said she was stupidly powerful, right? What if… I dunno… what if she sealed your Aura or something equally bullshit?"

While Jaune didn't want to entertain the implications of Yang's idea, he couldn't deny that it was one possible explanation. He'd seen his fair share of powerful fighters during the tournament, but that woman was something different entirely. Something far more sinister.

He decided it was better to let the matter rest for now, since there was nothing any of them could really do to make it better. "We'll see what Vahlen can find out. In the meantime, what about you two? You mentioned that there was some pretty serious stuff that went down underneath the tower."

"Well, we found Ozpin down there." Nora said, "He's crazy good at fighting, by the way. The two of us helped him hold off hordes of Grimm for a long time, but the headmaster was doing most of the heavy lifting."

"Why were you guys down there, anyway?" Yang asked.

"He had a lot of equipment down there, and made it very clear that it was vital we protect it. I… think it was some kind of life support for a woman in one of the machines." And before anyone asked the inevitable question about Ozpin, "Both he and the patient were taken by a woman, however. Ozpin fought with her for quite a while before she managed to subdue him, render us unconscious, and escape before we woke up."

Yang groaned, "So now we have _two_ stupidly powerful women. Unless they're the same person fighting in two places at once."

"I don't think so." Nora said, "The woman in Ozpin's office was wearing red and using fire, right? This woman was dressed completely in black and using Grimm to fight."

Pyrrha moved on to the next obvious question, "So how did you get out? We didn't hear from you until a long time after the purple explosion destroyed the tower. I would imagine that it ruined the elevator you used to get down there."

Nora and Ren shared a look before Ren answered, "You imagined correctly. But we, uh… met someone while we were down there."

"Or some _thing_." Nora added, "Something that had a voice and was very angry at the woman who stole Ozpin. We never saw who he was, though."

Ren nodded, "At least we think that's who he was mad at. From what he said, it sounded like Ozpin and the woman know each other, and that Ozpin trusted her."

"He was really crazy, though. Thought we were working for the woman, and that she had sent us down there so he could murder us or something." Nora wiggled her finger in circles next to her ear, "Not sure how he came to that conclusion. Kinda worked in our favor, though, since he decided he would spite her by letting us get back up to the surface. Shot up some sort of supercharged grappling hook so we could climb out."

"Well that was nice of him at least." Jaune said.

Ren shook his head, "Not really. We only had five minutes before he launched enough explosives into the elevator shaft to completely collapse it."

"Oh…"

"We don't know if Ozpin knew that thing was down there, but he made no mention of it to us. But given that he knows practically everything about Beacon, I would be really surprised if he was unaware."

Ren sat down on the opposite wall from Pyrrha, "I need to rest for a while, but we do need to organize and figure out how to regroup with the rest of XCOM. I think it would be best for Jaune and Nora to assess our situation while I stay and continue to provide medical assistance for Pyrrha and Yang."

"That sounds like a good idea." Jaune said as he got up and dusted himself off, "We'll start by checking in on Sam, and then go from there."

"I should be good to go by the time you guys get something figured out." Yang added, testing the burn scars on her face and neck, "Between me and Nora, it should be easy to move Pyrrha quickly and safely."

The slightly crestfallen look on Pyrrha's face didn't escape Jaune, though he knew better than to draw attention to it. Rather, checked his equipment nodded at Nora, and the two of them left the room. The three remaining huntsmen eased into a comfortable silence and allowed themselves a chance to rest and recover.

* * *

" _Sir, we have a bit of an… interesting situation at the southern barricade._ "

After all the bullshit from last night and this morning, Bradford was decidedly not a fan of 'interesting situations.' He looked up from the city map he was poring over in the command center and keyed his comm.

"What do you have for me?"

" _A man just drove up on a yellow motorcycle and demanded to see Captain Rose and her sister. He's extremely agitated, but not belligerent. You'll probably want to come down here ASAP._ "

Of course. More angry people.

"I'm on my way."

Bradford walked briskly across the Safe Zone towards the southern wall. The man was most likely Taiyang, as Ruby had once explained to him that neither her mother nor Yang's were still around. One of the first things on the girls' to-do list once they had made it back to Remnant was visit their father and assure him that they were okay. Given that every radio and news station was likely tuned in for last night's disaster, Taiyang probably booked it to Vale as fast as possible to make sure they were still safe.

Still, why wouldn't he call?

Bradford was about to find out, as he caught sight of who he assumed was Taiyang once he rounded the last corner and the barricade came into view. He saw as the operatives on duty gestured in his direction, likely to explain to the man that Bradford would have the answers, and was only mildly surprised when he watched them get shoved out of the way while the newcomer stormed over to him. Well, Ruby had told Bradford that she wanted to introduce him to her dad at some point. Pity it had to happen like this.

"Where are they?" He asked, "My daughters. The men back there said you would know, so you are going to tell me exactly where I can find my little girls."

Bradford nodded, "The men back there are correct. I was Ruby's commanding officer when her team joined my division for a few weeks and-"

"That was you?" Taiyang hissed, "You're the one to blame for my daughter's-"

" _Stop._ " Bradford said, "And pull yourself together. I will be more than happy to discuss Yang's condition with you when it is appropriate, but now is neither the time nor the place."

The man glared at him, but said nothing.

"Miss Rose has been working tirelessly here to help coordinate the Valean Recon Division's response to the crisis at hand, and she left about half an hour ago with a team to locate and extract the personnel we had dispatched to Beacon when the tower exploded. Her sister is among those likely still at Beacon, and so Ruby has a vested interest in spearheading that particular effort personally. Given that comms are down, we won't know their status until they return. However, she handpicked the team that left with her, which includes some of the best operatives I have ever had the honor of working with."

"And so what do you suggest I do?" Taiyang said, still leering at Bradford, "Sit on my ass and wait for them to maybe come back?"

After the last round of diplomatic efforts between XCOM and Ironwood, Bradford did not have the capacity for dealing with another grown man getting irrationally short with him. "I suggest you _help_ , Mr. Xiao Long. There are a lot of people here in dire need of aid from those who have the energy and skills to do so. Remind yourself that you are an instructor for some of Remnant's finest huntsmen-in-training, I can't think of anyone more qualified to pitch in during a time when your kingdom needs you most. Both of your daughters did so -and more- without a second thought. I'd like to think that they learned their sense of honor and duty from somewhere."

Taiyang shut his eyes and took a deep breath. It may have been fatigue playing tricks with his vision, but Bradford thought he saw the tattoos on the man's arm briefly glow around the edges. Before he could ask, however, the man spoke.

"You're right. I'm just… ever since Summer…" He took another deep breath, "My girls are all I have left. If something happened to them…"

"They saved my life and those of my operatives more times than I can count." Bradford said, "The men and women working with your daughters will fight like hellions to make sure no harm comes to them. That I can promise."

Bradford turned to head back to Mission Control and gestured for Taiyang to follow him. "Until they return, why don't we get you up to speed on everything happening around here? And while we're at it, I should probably explain to you the true nature of my division."

* * *

Nicho looked up from his work in the mech bay at the sound of heavy footsteps entering the room to see Poncho walk in.

"How are we looking, Sergeant?"

"Belladonna left a few minutes ago to get back to Beacon and check on her partner." Poncho reported, "We would have dispatched an escort to go with her, but she understands that we're a bit short-staffed around here. Even agreed to Samuelson's request to stay with the ship and help where he can."

The Lieutenant nodded, "We'll need it. This thing is in really bad shape. I don't even know if Ironwood will be able to get her back at this point, honestly."

With the amount of damage she sustained from the crash landing, it would be impossible to assemble the work crew necessary to get the ship airworthy without drawing the attention of the Grimm. The Scouts had already reported a few minor incursions nearby, but they managed to dispatch the wolves quietly. If something bigger came wandering over and needed the squad's full firepower to put down…

Poncho continued with his report, "Tinoco's team finished their eval of the propulsion system. It's… theoretically salvageable, assuming we either had a way to repair the damage to the grav crystals or we found ourselves a fresh supply. And even then, we don't have a way to transport it."

There was a large, Amity-shaped solution to the first problem, but Poncho had a point about the second one. Maybe Bradford could have a couple of MECs dispatched to their position once Nicho regained contact with Central. Until then, however, the ship had plenty of other issues that needed to be fixed in the meantime. The mech bay had proven to be a godsend. Much of the trashed hardware on the ship would have stayed that way without access to the machinery and tooling Nicho's team had found. It didn't take very long to tinker with some of the damaged equipment and get it back online. Once they had access to a couple of mills, welding supplies, and even electrical equipment, the engineering corps was back in business. With his past experience as a machinist, Nicho had assigned himself to the task of supplying the rest of his team with replacement equipment as they worked to restore the ship.

"Have we finished mapping out the ship yet?"

Poncho laughed, "With a ship this big? We've identified and marked all of the major rooms, but Volt keeps finding new surprises. One of the men posted to guard our resident murderer found a warden's office tucked away behind a couple of the cells. Figured out a way to break in and discovered a cache of rifles and weapons-grade Dust."

Interesting. One of the teams had found the munitions stores for the ship-mounted weapons early on. While they couldn't exactly make much use out of those for the time being, small arms sounded a lot more useful.

Nicho glanced back at the mill he'd left idle while he listened to Poncho's report. "If we've got a ways to go, then I better get back to work."

* * *

Annette, Ruby discovered, was more correct than she probably realized in her assessment of Grimm overrunning Beacon. While the target density wasn't so great that they couldn't navigate through the school at all, the roving Beowolves, Creeps, and Ursa forced Ruby's extraction squad to tread very lightly and take roundabout paths to avoid detection. The school was big enough to allow for it, and Ruby had asked their Engineer to pack a couple of decoy noisemakers as a last resort, but the situation still slowed down their advance to an undesirable pace.

Several occasions called for a silent assassination of a lone Beowolf blocking their path, and Orryn Crohm was happy to oblige. He'd approached one of the XCOM operatives during the recovery effort and asked if he could help. As the Lance Corporal explained it, Orryn had some guilt over 'playing a part' in the fall of Beacon, as he was Coco's opponent when she kicked off the panic with her minigun. So when Ruby told Bradford that she would need some silent firepower for her infiltration op, Central pointed her towards the dagger dancer. And after seeing him ambush the lone Beowolf in such a way that not even a single pained howl escaped its throat, Ruby could see why Bradford made his suggestion. Orryn's Semblance, Ruby learned, allowed him to bond his Aura to a weapon or two and let him manipulate them remotely after throwing them. He'd settled on a pair of daggers as his weapons of choice, which made him perfect for taking out a single target from a distance without making any noise.

The group ducked into one of the buildings from a back alley and took the opportunity to stop for an equipment check while the Scouts assessed the path ahead. Moments after Ruby sat down to shut her eyes for a moment, her pocket buzzed, and a small _ding_ accompanied the notification that one of her teammates had just come into scroll-to-scroll range. She held up a hand and signaled for her squad to stay hunkered down and keep watch while Ruby pulled the small device out of her pocket and checked her team roster.

"It's Blake." She whispered to Otter, "And I'd bet a week's worth of kitchen duty that Yang isn't far off."

She tapped on Blake's face and shot off a quick text. The rest of her team kept their eyes on the doorway into the building and the road outside as pack after pack of wandering Grimm trundled past.

 _Blake, it's Ruby._

Ruby watched as her scroll lit up again, though it seemed to take Blake a while to actually respond.

 _I can see that. Are you in Beacon, or did Shen find a new fix for the signal issue?_

 _In Beacon. Comms are still down, unfortunately. We're here to find you guys and get you out._

 _That's good. We've got several wounded, and Grimm keep pouring into the school._

 _We noticed that, too. Where are you?_

 _Comm station._

 _We're on our way_.

"We've got a location." Ruby whispered to Otter, "How are the Scouts?"

"On their way back." The Lieutenant answered, "They identified several clear routes through the school."

Good. "Well, we don't need to go to the heart of Beacon, but we're headed for the abandoned dormitories."

Fonseca clicked his comm piece several times, and Ruby heard the Scouts respond with an assortment of their own dots and dashes before the Lieutenant nodded. "They're waiting for us out in the alley."

The team regrouped and moved towards their objective with renewed purpose. Orryn took point with the Scouts, eliminating any isolated contacts before the rest of the extraction squad even had a chance to catch up. Ruby desperately wanted to blow off some steam by killing a few targets with Crescent, but she knew that the attention it could draw wouldn't be worth it. Those elephants looked a lot nastier up close, and some of the Ursa Majors they passed had enough scars and plating to show that they'd seen more than a few serious fights. Ruby kept Blake appraised of their progress as they advanced towards the comm station, and Blake in turn sent her updates on what had transpired at Beacon.

Given that the Beacon teams had apparently taken on two of the agents behind the attack, Ruby was surprised that the casualties weren't worse than reported. Blake grew quiet when Ruby delivered the news that contact was completely lost with the Temple Ship (probably because Pyrrha was in desperate need of medical attention), but it sounded like XCOM's problems wouldn't be growing exponentially worse from the news coming in on Beacon's end. In fact, Blake's report that the cruiser crew had survived would probably bring some relief to Bradford, and Ruby was looking forward to returning to base with her friends to deliver that particular bit of information.

 _We're sending Ren out to join you and escort you to the comms._

It didn't take long for JNPR's resident ninja to find the extraction team, and Ruby was hardly surprised when he announced his arrival by slitting the throats of a Beowolf pair preparing to ambush the main group. Ruby flashed a grin at her friend as the Scout detail doubled back to regroup, but Ren simply held a finger up to his lips and led the group into a nearby building. Once they were off the streets, Ren pulled Ruby into a light hug.

"It's good to see you, Captain." He said, finally returning Ruby's smile.

"You too, Ren. But aren't we going to the dorms? I know we haven't exactly been in class for a while, but I'm pretty sure I'd remember the old lecture hall."

Ren nodded as he continued to guide the team up the stairs and through the building. "Correct. But our group has been putting together methods of discretely traveling from building to building to keep off of the streets as much as possible. The comm center is only a few buildings over."

They climbed the stairs and exited onto the rooftop. For once, the destruction caused by the battle came in handy, as damage to the lecture hall had caused a portion of the structure to tilt and rest against its neighbor. Ruby saw what Ren had meant by travel methods when she noticed lumber and rope keeping the collapsed concrete stable, and wondered how long his team had been working on developing travel routes through Beacon. The group entered the adjoining building, moved through the quiet, dusty hallway to the other side, and saw a rope system spanning the gap to the comm dormitory.

"So who had the honor of jumping across first?" Ruby asked.

"I did." Ren answered, "And it's probably more accurate to say that I was launched across."

Otter suppressed a snort, "Occupational hazard of being Nora's partner, I think."

"You're not wrong."

Ruby hooked herself to the zipline and rode down to the dormitory. While professionalism demanded that she wait for the rest of her squad to make the crossing, it took all of Ruby's willpower to not run down the hallway and plow into her waiting sister. Once zipped in after the last operative, however, all bets were off. A trail of rose petals drifted to the floor in Ruby's wake. She practically flew through the hall, raced to the stairs, tried every floor until she saw one with an open door, skidded to a halt in front of the opening, and looked inside.

Both Yang and Pyrrha looked up from their seats on the far wall of the room at the sudden disturbance, and curiosity gave way to joy when they recognized Ruby.

"So are you guys ready to get out of here, or what?"

* * *

Ironwood looked up at the sound of his security guard knocking on the open door frame to his makeshift office.

"Miss Schnee is here to see you, sir."

"Weiss Schnee?" Ironwood asked. He knew that Winter never needed to have her arrival announced before she walked in to discuss matters.

"Yes sir. Sorry, sir."

The General nodded and waited as the guard ducked back out. Weiss entered the room a moment later, and Ironwood could see hesitancy and uncertainty written all over her face and body language. She still carried herself like a Schnee, but years of working with Winter had given Ironwood some insight into the mannerisms, etiquette, and general behavior of the women in Jacques's family. And given how often James had spent time with Weiss trying to convince her to study at his academy, it would be embarrassing to think that he didn't know the young lady well enough to tell when she was nervous.

"A pleasure to see you again, Miss Schnee." He greeted, adopting a friendly tone to help put Weiss at ease, "I take it you are assisting with Atlas's evacuation efforts?"

Weiss nodded, "Of course. It's my honor as a huntress and my duty as a Schnee to help those in need. I escorted the latest wave of civilians to the muster point, and I am pleased to inform you that no casualties were suffered under my watch."

Ironwood smiled as Weiss's familiar voice of confidence returned once she started speaking of her accomplishments. "You are truly Winter's sister, Weiss. The people of Atlas, and Remnant as a whole, thank you for your service."

A hint of unease flashed across Weiss's face once more, "Speaking of Atlas, General…"

"I trust you have considered my words carefully." Ironwood answered. He suspected that this was the root of Weiss's troubles. It was clear as day that she had built some deep bonds with the other huntresses on her team, and Ironwood had no doubt that Weiss would rather be with the friends she has spent the better part of a year forming a close bond with instead of revisiting the… strained relationship with her father.

"I have." Weiss answered, "For a long time, actually. But I came to the decision that it would be best for me to come back to Atlas."

Ironwood raised an eyebrow, "And your Bradford is okay with this?"

"I do not belong to Bradford." Weiss retorted, her tone growing icy, "And I do not need his permission to make decisions for myself. The Captain has become a trusted friend of mine, and he likewise trusts that any decision I make is in the best interest of Remnant first, myself second, and my allies third."

"A good answer." Ironwood conceded. He hadn't actually meant anything malicious by his jab, though he _was_ curious to see the extent of the loyalty Bradford commanded from the students. He was glad to see that the answer was less than he'd feared.

"There is one thing I would like to request, however." Weiss said, "While I didn't know Penny until a few weeks ago, she fought hard alongside my team and saved my life on more than one occasion when we were trapped with the Valean Recon Division. I… think it would be helpful for Dr. Polendina to have someone who knows his daughter and can share stories about her to deliver the copy that Bradford gave to you. I owe it to Penny to help with her father's grief, and this is the best way I can think of."

Ironwood processed Weiss's words for a few moments. The offer had caught him off-guard, as he didn't consider the possibility that Penny had grown close to anyone other than Ruby Rose. Still, he could hear the sincerity in Weiss's voice, and nothing was coming to mind as a reason for rejecting her request. "That would be very helpful, actually. Dr. Polendina has become very keen on seeing Penny as soon as possible, but I need to remain here to oversee the safe evacuation of our citizens -and those of the other Kingdoms- before it would be appropriate for me to return to Atlas."

The General reached under his desk and pulled out a small, armored box and set it on the table. "Take this to the Doctor. It is locked, but he knows how to open it. Are you leaving soon?"

Weiss nodded as she picked up the lockbox. "I was planning to once I was finished here. Winter has already agreed to accompany me on the journey."

"Excellent. Then I suppose I should bid you farewell and wish you a safe journey. Until we meet again, Miss Schnee."

"Thank you, General." Weiss curtsied and departed with Penny, and Ironwood returned to his paperwork as soon as the room was empty.


	26. Popular Support

The cruiser still needed a lot of duct tape, paper clips, and bubblegum before she'd be airworthy again, but Nicho could at least say that his team had made the ship both defensible and useful. The machine shop hardly ever stopped running with the seemingly never-ending punch list of projects to repair damaged hardware and improve the ship's systems. Silent defenses were a big one for the engineers tasked with developing Grimm countermeasures. Most of the work done on the ship was internal, which thankfully meant that the operatives didn't draw much attention from the local denizens, but every gunshot ran the risk of drawing more curious critters into the work site.

Spears were crafted for operatives on perimeter defense, and a small application of fire dust allowed the defenders to superheat their blades before engaging an intruder. Slingshots would silently draw the attention of the Grimm and cause it to lumber into the cruiser's gaping wound where a waiting squad of spearmen could quickly dispatch it. Nicho OK'd the construction of a small ballista when the engineer who proposed it promised he could get the weapon rigged up in only three hours. Volt still had twenty minutes before the clock ran out, and the Lieutenant was actually impressed with the progress made on the weapon when he took a break from his work in the machine shop and walked around to check on his crew.

Repairs to the ship's power systems were also underway. The engines were still shot to hell, as the engineering team had originally surmised, but the central power plant didn't suffer quite the same fate. One of the teams had discovered a large chunk of lightning dust towards the back of the cruiser that was housed in an impressive containment cell and rigged up to several power conduits. Though the crystal was cracked in some areas, Nicho's bio ops confirmed that it still carried a potential charge. A cursory inspection of the power cables showed them to be mostly unharmed, so Nicho dedicated a team to restoring power to the sections of the ship that had been cut off from the main reactor during the crash.

" _Lieutenant, this is Poncho. Power rigging team is all set for a dry run of the system._ "

Given that the third major project team had just reported in with news that the comm array was ready to go live, Poncho's team had good timing. Nicho sat down in one of the few remaining seats on the command deck and briefly entertained the thought that he was the ship's captain while he answered the radio.

"Sounds good, Sergeant. All personnel, be advised that a power test is about to begin. Take appropriate safety precautions until I give the all-clear."

A chorus of affirmative's echoed over the short-range comms, and Poncho took his cue to start the test. Almost immediately, the dim lighting on the command deck flickered and grew brighter. The cracked console to his left quietly hummed as its display slowly sputtered to life. A few seconds later, the energy in the room vanished.

" _Sorry about that. Minor hiccup. Give us a minute._ "

If this worked and restored primary power to the ship, Poncho could take all afternoon if he needed to.

"Fair enough. All personnel, you may resume working until the Sergeant announces that the power testing is back on track."

Nicho tinkered with the console to get it working better while he waited for the power team to make their fixes. He had to admit, Atlas did a great job of designing all of their hardware look sleek and streamlined. He could imagine being a cadet in the Atlas military, taking a sense of pride in the technological advances of his kingdom. Still, the pristine feel of the glossy-white casing looked almost fake when the Lieutenant compared it to the acrid, melted surfaces of the consoles and flooring that didn't survive the bridge fight against the commandos.

"You'd think that the best military on the planet would prioritize function over form…" Nicho muttered as he pulled a ruined panel off of the side of his console and examined the machine's internals, "I guess the Engineer's Plight isn't just limited to Earth."

" _We're ready to go live again. Main power is coming on in three… two…_ "

A weighty hum spread through the bridge, and bright lights bloomed on the bridge once more. Nicho identified a couple of sparking wires inside his console and made a note to tinker with them later. For now, though, the damage to the screen wasn't bad enough to make the station unusable. The Lieutenant carefully tabbed through several menus and folders while the various engineering teams chattered in the background.

" _Power output stable. Still a lot of room for improvement, but at least we're getting somewhere._ "

"Volt?" Nicho asked, "How are we looking topside?"

" _Comm array just got a pretty large boost to its output. We were practically running on fumes with the auxiliary power._ "

Looked like Project Number Three was a success. While most of the communication equipment on the ship was located on the belly of the cruiser and damaged during landfall, Nicho's crew found some antennas and wiring in the repair bay that could be co-opted into a radio array. It helped that Samuelson was one of the commsat engineers from the Long War days, and so his expertise proved invaluable in getting a system up and running. They'd been setting up shop on the cruiser's roof throughout the day, and had reported in as tentatively ready about an hour before Poncho's power posse turned on the lights.

"Anything interesting?" The Lieutenant asked. He continued to tab through the sub-menus, though most of them didn't mean too much from a cursory inspection. He'd likely have to spend some time really digging into the ship's systems before getting anything out of it.

Volt didn't answer for a few moments while his team tried to interpret the signals coming in. " _Looks like we_ s _till can't reach Vale, unfortunately. I'm sure we'd be hearing a lot more chatter otherwise._ "

Unfortunate, but not entirely unexpected. Oh well, at least they'd be listening if someone came knocking-

" _Hold up. Sam thinks he's got something._ "

Nicho stopped scrolling through the main cannon's firing solution subroutine and waited for Volt to continue.

" _The airwaves all look dirty to me, but our boy has a 'hunch,' whatever that means._ "

"Explain, if you don't mind." Nicho powered off the terminal and started to walk towards the bridge's roof access

" _It's in the lower range, sir._ " Samuelson began, " _There's a spike of energy at one of the lower bandwidths. It's small enough to blend in with the background energy, but it's… uh… interesting._ "

"Interesting in what way?" The Lieutenant started climbing the ladder that led to the roof hatch as Samuelson hesitantly continued.

" _It's… uh… well, there's a larger bump that's flanked by two… umm… smaller ones. And-_ "

Volt, growing impatient with the engineer, cut him off, " _It looks like a cock and balls, sir. Centered on the 69 MHz bandwidth._ "

"It's a what on a fucking what?" Nicho asked as he popped the hatch behind the comm team.

"You heard me, boss." Volt said, turning around with a grin, "And I think you know as well as I do that that subtle dick jokes are the calling card for one of XCOM's most infamous Engineers."

"Mac, you son of a bitch." Nicho breathed, hovering over Samuelson's shoulder to see for himself, "Is that all there is to it?"

Samuelson shook his head, "I don't think so. Mac wouldn't go through all that trouble for nothing. It's probably there to catch the attention of anyone who might be paying attention. I'm trying to figure out what message he's broadcasting, but it's taking some time."

"What do you mean? Don't we just dial into that frequency and listen?" Sometimes, Nicho wished that he'd spent a little more time with the signal processing crews rather than focusing all of his efforts in Shen's manufacturing bay. The craftsmanship skills came in handy, sure, but there was a lot more to engineering than just lathes and TIG welders.

"He's hiding the message, sort of like how he hid the message's location." Samuelson explained. He flipped a toggle, made a couple of keystrokes, and the digital readout changed from a bandwidth spectrum to a moving wavelength, "I'm trying to figure out how he encoded it."

"Can we look for another johnson?"

The other engineer snorted, "I wish. But not this time, unfortunately. Though I think…" Samuelson trailed off as he watched the screen. Nicho had no idea what he was looking for, but he could tell Sam was getting excited, "Yep, that'll do it."

As Samuelson fiddled with the controls, the signals on the screen coalesced (almost magically, to Nicho's untrained eye) and formed a new pattern. Unlike the old noise, however, this pattern looked sharp and defined.

"Motherfucker took his message and broke the signal into asymmetrical packets." Samuelson said, a mixture of awe and frustration in his voice, "You have to take the average of the signal over a long period for it to come back into focus. Looks like Morse."

So first he hides the message with a dick joke, then he encodes it by scattering the signal, and _then_ he uses a communication protocol that the people of Remnant had never heard of. "Looks like somebody really didn't want this message to get into the wrong hands. I'm guessing you know how to translate Morse?"

Samuelson nodded. "Yeah… it also helps that the message is pretty simple."

"Well?" Volt asked, voicing the impatience that Nicho shared, "What's it say?"

"Amity."

* * *

As expected, the first part of the extraction operation proved to be the most difficult. Moving the injured (and paralyzed) without detection from the Grimm was an exercise in caution and patience, and while Ruby was far less restless now that she'd reunited with her sister, she still didn't wasn't a fan of the waiting game. The group had considered using Ruby's superior speed to draw the attention of the Grimm away from the evacuation team, but Ren pointed out that agitating the monsters might trigger another run on the various safe zones scattered across Vale. So carefully evading contact with the enemy and leaving them to wander aimlessly around the halls of Beacon became the plan of action, and Ruby grudgingly acknowledged the wisdom behind it.

Going slow had its benefits, however. The wounded and their attendants would have been a burden on the group in a fast-paced exfiltration, but they had no difficulty keeping up when Ren and Orryn signaled for a halt every few minutes. Blake checked in on the group when the rescue team first made contact with JNPR and Yang, but explained that she needed to make her way back the cruiser team stranded in the opposite direction of Vale. She transferred a document to Ruby's scroll that contained Lieutenant Cortez's report on his team's situation and asked that Ruby deliver it to Bradford. And so Blake departed on her own mission while everyone else started their journey back to XCOM's Safe Zone.

Ruby alternated between taking point for the main group and falling back towards the middle to check on both her sister and Pyrrha. Yang seemed to have recovered pretty well from her burn injuries, though she wasn't so hard-headed as to refuse some light assistance from one of the operatives on the extraction team. Pyrrha, on the other hand… Jaune carried his partner in his arms without any difficulty, and Ruby was relieved to hear her friend report that Pyrrha had finally fallen asleep. Everyone had their own demons and horrors they faced last night, but Jaune's story about the trauma Pyrrha had to endure (starting with having to literally face her worst nightmare) sounded far worse than any of Ruby's struggles, which included putting down a deranged Penny. And if Vahlen wasn't able to fix this paralysis thing, then what could they possibly do to help Pyrrha regain a sense of normalcy? Ruby couldn't even begin to fathom what kind of crippling fear this injury was wreaking on her friend's psyche.

Another stop ahead pulled Ruby away from the dark thoughts that started to cloud her mind. She caught up with the scouts and looked ahead to see what the problem was. They had almost reached the docks, and Ruby couldn't sense any approaching danger to warrant the extra caution.

"More Grimm?"

Ren shook his head, "It looks like we've moved outside the main convergence of Grimm at Beacon. It'll be much easier to navigate around any outliers moving forward."

"Or we could just kill them." Orryn commented, idly twirling his dagger around his head while he waited for the rest of the group to catch up.

"There are more lone wolves now, yes." Ren agreed, "Now we just need to find a way to get everyone down into the city."

"Oh, that won't be a problem!" Ruby piped up, digging into one of her pouches and pulling out a specially marked cartridge and loading it into Zhang's handgun.

Ren raised an eyebrow, "Flares?"

"Flares." Ruby confirmed.

Of all the ideas she and Bradford bounced off of each other, this was the one they eventually settled on. Given Beacon's elevation above the rest of Vale, Ruby could shoot the flare straight ahead and people in the city would be able to see it without alerting the Grimm in the school. The Nevermores perched atop the ruined tower might be able to see it, though, so perhaps Ruby would have to descend halfway down the switchbacks towards the marina before sending her signal.

Orryn and Ren still had their doubts, apparently. "But is anybody going to be looking for a flare from Beacon?"

"Our pilots are."

Ruby hid a smirk as she watched the cogs turn in Ren's brain as he looked around at the group assembling at their location. The Albatross suits were pretty heavy-duty, but even they wouldn't be able to hold everyone. The idea of leaving some people behind while the pilots made several round trips was out of the question, of course. Once she'd given her friend enough time to puzzle out a solution, she told him the plan.

"The Bullhead pilots from Atlas were starting to complain about fatigue affecting their ability to fly." Ruby started to explain, "There's been a near-constant need for aerial deployments and extractions, which is something Ironwood's military hadn't anticipated, I guess. Anyway, Bradford volunteered to let our pilots help keep the Bullheads and shuttles airborne. Ironwood wasn't too fond of the proposal at first, but apparently the Atlesian airforce was overwhelmingly in favor of XCOM's aid, so the General eventually agreed."

"Seems like we made quite the impression on Atlas's armed forces." Ren mused.

Ruby's smirk shifted into a grin. "Indeed. When Firebrand asked her co-pilot about the extraction mission, he didn't even have to think it over before agreeing. Regardless of how Ironwood feels about us, we're pretty popular with his troops."

The group reached the docks without incident, and Ruby dropped down below the cliff's ridgeline before she gave Firebrand the signal to fly in and extract. The operatives on the extraction team took up positions to form a small perimeter around the docks and Orryn quietly slipped off to scout beyond the defensive line and preemptively eliminate any Grimm that wandered close. Ren joined Nora at Jaune's side, and the three of them looked at Pyrrha's sleeping figure. Yang took the opportunity to lay down by the dock's edge, since they would likely be waiting for a little while, and she graciously allowed herself to be used as a pillow for Pyrrha.

"Do you think she'll be okay?" Nora asked.

"Can't say for certain," Jaune answered, eyes glued to his partner's sleeping form, "But I'm going to do everything in my power to make sure she will be."

Given that Jaune had subjected himself to literal torture for at least a week during their time on Earth, Ren knew that truth and determination backed his claim. As Ren watched a trio of bright red flares shoot out over the massive river leading to Beacon, his thoughts wandered to the relationship between Jaune and Pyrrha. Jaune frequently joked that he didn't deserve Pyrrha, and that he got way more out of their partnership than she did. The fire that now smoldered in his eyes, however, told Ren that Jaune gave himself far less credit than he deserved.

A few minutes later, Ruby hopped back up onto the docks.

"Alright, we're all set. I saw a Bullhead light up a few moments after I launched the flares, so help should be on its way soon."

"Really?" Jaune asked, and he squinted in an effort to see anything heading towards them from Vale.

Ruby tapped her temple with a smirk. "Special eyes, remember?"

"Sometimes, I feel like you and Annette have made a secret pact to hog all of the Aura-Psi duality powers for yourselves." Jaune grumbled, and he sat down next to Pyrrha and Yang while he waited for their pickup.

Yang let out a quiet yawn as the group looked out over the morning horizon. Although the threat of Grimm coming up from their rear was technically possible, the next few minutes of downtime represented their first real opportunity to breathe easy and take in the relative peace that followed last night's storm. The massive city of Vale stretched out along the river before them. And while countless pillars of smoke rose above the skyline to mark the death and destruction brought down upon the kingdom, airships dotted the cityscape as they flitted to and fro in an effort to deploy help where it was needed. Vale was dealt a crippling blow, but sheer force of will in the face of adversity had always been one of mankind's strong suits.

It may take years for the kingdom to recover, but Ren had no doubt that it would. In the meantime, small pockets of safety had already begun to nucleate and grow in the various city districts. From his vantage point, Ren could see the massive breach in the perimeter wall that had allowed the Grimm to pour in like water once panic had spread from the festival goers and taken hold in the city proper. Vale wouldn't truly be safe until the wall was properly repaired, but at least people could find shelter and safety among the outposts for now. And there would be huntsmen and military personnel ready to defend them as long as they had the supplies and energy to do so.

A few minutes later, and Ruby's scroll pinged with a hailing signal. A familiar face appeared on the screen after she accepted the call, and the woman spoke loud enough for all of the students to hear.

"Extraction team, this is Firebrand with Atlas One-Five. I think it's time we brought you home."

* * *

"General Ironwood, sir."

Ironwood looked up from his work to see an officer peeking through the tent flap.

"He's here."

The General nodded, pushed his work to the side, and gestured for the officer to bring in his guest. Ironwood had received word several hours ago about the proposed meeting when the request was radioed to his security detail in the evacuation zone. While the idea that Bradford wanted to meet with him again after their first delegation was amusing, it also took time away from the rest of the hundred-and-one pressing matters that needed the General's attention. Even so, the Captain did receive Ironwood's group, and regardless of how well or poorly Ironwood viewed their conversation, professionalism dictated that he offer the same hospitality.

Bradford ducked in a few moments later, a metallic case in hand, accompanied by Ironwood's attending officer.

"Dismissed. Thank you." Ironwood said, and the officer snapped a salute before excusing himself. While Bradford didn't appear bothered by the officer's presence, Ironwood suspected that his guest came here to discuss matters in private. He did come alone, after all.

"I presume you have a point in coming here, Captain."

"I do." Bradford answered with a nod as he set the case down on the floor, "Our last meeting showed me that I need to clear the air between us. I suspect we'll be working together quite a bit in the coming months, for reasons that I will get into shortly, so it's important that we aren't hostile to one another."

How presumptuous of him to assume that they would be working together after this Vytal business was cleared up. Still, Ironwood decided that it might be worthwhile to play along with his game, at least for now.

"And how do you plan to accomplish that?"

"Well, by having a conversation where it's just you and me, for starters." Bradford said, and Ironwood caught a hint of mild annoyance in his voice, "There's nobody here that's going to judge you or I about which one of us comes out 'on top' by the end of this conversation. All we have to worry about is finding a common ground and working our way up from there."

A good sentiment, provided that the Captain wasn't just lying through his teeth to make Ironwood feel more comfortable. Still, if his guest really did have good intentions, Ironwood needed to do his due diligence and hear the man out. Healthy skepticism wasn't a bad thing, but blind disbelief wouldn't be helpful either. And while the General would never admit it out loud, the battle's casualties would have spiraled out of control without the 'Recon Division' soldiers. Bradford's usefulness as an ally was Ironwood's to win or lose, and it didn't take a General to recognize the value in that.

Still, the Captain needed to be made perfectly aware of Ironwood's misgivings. "Trust would be a good place to start."

Bradford seemed to agree. "Indeed. There is a lot that I kept from you, mostly because I was trying to tread carefully during the stressful time presented by the festival. Once security over thousands of guests was no longer an issue, I planned to debrief you in full on the nature of my division." The Captain shrugged, "I don't see a reason why that time needs to wait any longer. But first, I think the best way to tell you everything is to first understand what you know already."

Fair enough. "Your battlefield technology, while not exactly out of the realm of possibility, is not even close to anything I've seen come out of Vale's R&D. You say your group is a Recon Division for the Valean government, but none of the four kingdoms except for Atlas has ever produced field-ready mechanized units, and none of the four kingdoms has ever produced a stabilized teleportation device."

"I assumed that was what you were referring to when you mentioned Dr. Polendina's report." Bradford said with a smile.

Ironwood didn't share the Captain's amusement. "Why didn't you feel the need to inform me that you had that kind of capability? I could have done a lot more to protect the people of Remnant if I knew even half of what your group was truly capable of."

"Would you have believed me if I told you?" Bradford asked, "And would you have actually trusted me if you knew? Or would you have continued to assume that my division has some nefarious intention for keeping secrets from you?"

The General said nothing, choosing to let his guest make his point. "You're correct in your assertion that we aren't Valean, however. The truth is, we're not even from Remnant."

That was… not the point that Ironwood was expecting. "I don't think I heard you right, Captain."

"No, you did." Bradford said with a chuckle, "And I might as well tell you now that I'm not a Captain. I am the Central Officer of the Extraterrestrial Combat Unit that came here from Earth. You and your Specialist probably know us better as XCOM."

Silence met Bradford's words as Ironwood continued to slowly process what he was hearing. Was this some kind of joke? The General had asked for trust, and this Central Officer responds by spinning a fantastical tale of soldiers from a far away world. "You're going to have to do better than that, Bradford."

The Central Officer nodded. "I agree, and I can."

Bradford reached for the case that he had brought with him. He set it on Ironwood's table, popped the lid open, and laid two items on the wood in front of his host. The first was a vial containing a small crystal that seemed to practically buzz inside its chamber. The second, a piece of serrated metal, wasn't quite as intriguing as the vial, and the General wondered why his guest thought that scrap would be useful for their conversation.

"Am I supposed to be impressed?" Ironwood asked as he picked up the vial and examined the crystal inside. Sure, it looked intriguing, but that didn't mean much without a deeper analysis. Perhaps Bradford was claiming to offer diamonds when instead he only possessed cubic zirconia.

His guest shrugged,. "If you already have a means of generating near-infinite energy, or if you've synthesized a ballistic material that is ten times harder than alloyed steel… then I suppose not." Bradford picked up the scrap metal and twirled it in his hands, "You have a knife?"

No matter how little Ironwood thought of Bradford, he couldn't possibly imagine that the man would be dumb enough to try and ask for a murder weapon. The General fished a dirk out of his boot and passed it to Bradford, who nodded in thanks and ran the blade across the surface of the metal. Ironwood winced at the screeching sound that followed, but noticed that not a single scratch showed on the surface of the plate after Bradford had finished.

"While I won't be able to show you some of our best technology," Bradford continued, handing the dagger back to his host, "I still have plenty here that I'd be willing to loan you so that technical personnel that you trust -Dr. Polendina, perhaps?- can examine it and verify that it is indeed like nothing seen on Remnant. Weiss Schnee will be more than happy to join him for an afternoon of scientific inquiry, I'm sure."

"You seem awfully willing to give away XCOM's secrets, Central Officer." Ironwood commented, examining the material. He didn't know if the stuff in the vial was dangerous, but the idea of Weiss examining it with Dr. Polendina brought the General a fair amount of comfort. While Bradford's trustworthiness still remained to be seen, Ironwood knew Weiss well enough to confidently believe that she wouldn't allow herself to take part in an assassination plot against her own countrymen.

"Because forging alliances with the kingdoms of Remnant is in XCOM's best interest. We are very keen on establishing a good relationship between Earth and Remnant." Bradford explained, "Now that there is no delicate situation I need to be mindful of, why would I worry about secrecy?"

"Because maybe I'm not trustworthy."

Bradford shook his head. "I doubt that. Ozpin trusts you, and Ruby Rose trusts Ozpin. That's all I need to know."

Interesting. "Alright, so let's assume for now that I believe your story and I tentatively believe your intentions. What do you propose we do from here?"

"Do you mean before or after we finish with this mess?" Bradford asked, gesturing behind him, "XCOM is fully committed to supporting Atlas's evacuation efforts first and foremost. From there, we can turn our attention to helping Vale recover and rebuild, and I assume you will likewise be expected to focus your own efforts and resources on shoring up Atlas's defenses against whoever was behind this. XCOM is willing to support Atlas to whatever degree you decide it is safe to trust us and to whatever capacity we are capable of offering. Hopefully, you will consider offering the same aid to Vale if you have the resources to spare."

"What of your Earth?" Ironwood questioned, "I assume that the portal you are capable of creating connects to your homeworld, so why not ask your own nations to assist you in your goals on Remnant?"

The General realized that the answer to his question was not so simple when Bradford's face fell slightly. "If only, General, but there are two things you need to know. First, Earth is still recovering from our own war. Imagine the devastation of the Vytal Festival, but spread across an entire world. Hostile aliens from beyond our planetary system invaded and tried to subdue humanity into subservience, or worse. It was in this war that I met RWBY, JNPR, and Penny, and it was there that those students became the hardened soldiers that you saw in their fights during the tournament. Though I am certain that the nations of Earth would be willing to repay the favor we owe to those huntsmen of Remnant, they simply do not have the capacity to do so at this time.

"Second, our common adversary from the Vytal Calamity, whoever they may be, did something to our connection with Earth with the explosion that destroyed Beacon Tower. All of the contact we had from this world to ours was suddenly cut off, and we have been unable to regain that connection since then. Until we can better understand what happened and how we can reverse it, what you've seen is the full extent of XCOM's presence on Remnant."

Ironwood took a moment to chew on Bradford's words. "So you're stuck."

"We're stuck." Bradford agreed.

"And is that why you're so keen on using this disaster to establish a foothold in a shattered Vale?" Ironwood asked.

Bradford stared at Ironwood for a few seconds before letting out a low sigh, "You just can't help yourself, can you? I came here, alone, and laid out to you in plain terms who I really am and what my intentions really are. I offer you evidence that I am not of this world, and allow you to freely take it home so that your scientists may do with it what they will. Why are you still intent on convincing yourself that my goals are nefarious?"

Ironwood decided to ignore his guest's scolding tone. "Because you never explained why. Why are your intentions so altruistic? There is no way you would willingly throw your soldiers into the grinder if you didn't get something out of it."

Understanding dawned on Bradford's face. "We already got something out of it, General. I would very likely not be standing here today if not for the heroic efforts and sacrifices of Ruby and her friends. Their contributions to the war were immeasurable, and there isn't a single person at XCOM who wouldn't jump at the chance to repay the favor."

"They joined your war for three weeks, Bradford." Ironwood snorted, "How helpful could they have been?"

"They joined our war for eight months, General." Bradford shot back, "Time is a funny thing when you're dealing with transdimensional links."

That got the General's attention. Bradford pressed on, "Do you think Sergeant Belladonna developed her severe PTSD overnight? Or that Captain Rose learned how to effectively command a squad in a couple of days? They threw themselves into 'the grinder,' one far more horrific than tonight's I might add, without hesitation. And they did so without demanding anything in return. But that won't stop us from trying to pay them back anyway."

The tent grew quiet as Ironwood studied Bradford. Was this man telling the truth? Ironwood didn't see any of the obvious tells that would give away a liar, but this Central Officer was a trained professional. Perhaps if the General handed him off to Winter, she might pull the truth out of him. Then again, her response when Ironwood had originally asked for a first impression was, "Slightly nosy, but genuine."

Maybe Ironwood did owe him a chance.

"Suppose I believe you." The General started, "And suppose you really do want to help Remnant after we deal with our current mess. How do you plan to do it? You're stuck in Vale."

Bradford raised an eyebrow. "Perhaps it's the optimist in me, but it sounds like you're about to propose a solution to that issue."

"No. I'm just making an observation."

"Well then perhaps I can propose one." Bradford replied, "But first, a question: what do you do with Atlesian ships that get shot down?"

Ironwood did not like the start of this 'solution.' He narrowed his eyes and answered, "We locate the ship to search for survivors and salvage what we can from the wreck."

"What about ships that were hijacked by a terrorist, attacked by a Grimm dragon, and then crashed into God-knows-where on the far side of Beacon, probably in Grimm-infested territory?"

He knew exactly which ship Bradford was talking about. One of his finest, which had gone rogue in the early minutes of the battle and crippled Atlas's air superiority so that the Grimm fliers had free reign to terrorize the civilians. Ironwood had dispatched a couple of his scouting pilots to try and locate the wreck, but the Nevermores and Griffons roosting in Beacon swarmed them before they could properly survey the region.

"Do you mean to tell me that you've dispatched valuable operatives -ones that could otherwise be used to secure the safety of helpless citizens- to carry out a wild hunt for one of my ships?"

"I've dispatched valuable operatives to locate several student huntsmen teams trapped in Beacon." Bradford countered, his tone level, "And it turns out that those students had spent their time locating your ship, which happened to have a full squad of my operatives on board. Because I dispatched them to neutralize the terrorists during the battle and recover your asset. Obviously, that last part didn't pan out so well."

A… reasonable motivation, Ironwood had to admit. Even so, the idea of Bradford finding and tinkering with his ship nettled the General. "And once you have recovered your personnel, what do you intend to do with the ship?"

"I think the better question is what you intend to do with it, General. The reports I've received indicate that the ship's Dust cores are trashed, its hull is split into two pieces, all electronic equipment on the command deck has been leveled, and it's currently laying in the middle of a forest swarming with Grimm. My team of commandos has elected to stay with the ship in an effort to recover and repair what they can so that in the event you do have an interest in the ship, they can at least provide you with something worth salvaging."

"It sounds like a scrap heap to me. There's no way to get that thing airworthy without bringing the Grimm down on the work crews." Ironwood stared at Bradford, "Which again raises the question of why you are so interested in it."

"Because as you said, XCOM is stuck in Vale. We are limited in both number and resources. If we are to be of use, we need supplies in order to sustain our efforts. We will of course commit the majority of our efforts towards keeping the population safe, and we will assist Vale in its subsequent reconstruction and security efforts. But from your perspective, that derelict ship belongs to the dragon now. I fail to see the harm in trying to strip it of any and all parts that we could use to help protect the people of Remnant."

Ironwood rolled his eyes, "If your operatives have a death wish, then by all means, draw in the Grimm with the ruckus you'll create when you try to tear my ship apart for nuts and bolts."

"Thank you, General." Bradford said with a respectful nod, "My engineers are confident that they can make some use of your ship, but I had no intention of greenlighting any efforts until I had your permission. Going behind your back would only work counter to my goals here."

Did the Central Officer really need to be reminded of all the times he'd gone behind Ironwood's back already? Or perhaps that was why he apparently refused to do so this time around. "The sentiment is appreciated, Bradford. Will that be all…?"

Bradford nodded and got up from his seat. "For now, General. However, I hope we'll see more of each other as we move forward." He held out his hand and glanced at Ironwood to gauge his reaction, "We got off on the wrong footing, and I am determined to fix that mistake."

Ironwood looked at the outstretched hand with some hesitation before finally grasping it with his own and giving Bradford a firm shake. "This new candor is a good start. Good luck out there."

"Vigilo Confido, General." Bradford said as he offered a casual salute before turning to leave.

* * *

"Don't you think that our associates would have responded if they found the signal by now?"

MacAuley shook his head at Tygan's question, "My boys would've recognized the lengths I went to in hiding the message. They know their only option is to be here in person, or not at all."

"Not sure I'm a fan of the 'not at all' option." Jane called out with a grunt as she sifted through more of the rubble. Behind her grew a pretty sizable stack of rebar and concrete as she slowly worked to stockpile hardware that could be used as fortification if the Grimm came knocking before XCOM did. Given that the main reason for the group to stay with Amity was to do a post-mortem research and salvage operation on the station, Tygan and the engineers had plenty to keep themselves busy. Beagle and Kelly, on the other hand, didn't have much to do except keep their team secure.

Senchin and Altinsoy were more than happy to help in that regard, however. While Tygan focused his efforts on the station's databases and MacAuley rigged up his distress signal, the other two engineers took a keen interest in the hard light technology that had (for the most part) protected the stadium's audience from the furious battles in the ring. Altinsoy took a trip down to Amity's reactor to see if she could salvage anything that might be usable as a portable power source while Senchin helped the Lieutenant and Captain dig up sections of the forcefield generators and try to figure out how they worked. Luck seemed to be on their side for the first time that night: not only was Altinsoy able to report that part of the station's power plant remained undamaged, but it only took an hour and a half of concerted effort between Senchin and Tygan before they had figured out how to power up the shielding system. Another half hour later, and the scientist had managed to go a step further and successfully learned how to isolate and energize specific generators so that the entire system wouldn't cause undue strain on their limited power supply.

"Which is why they know the only option is to get off of their lazy asses and bail us out." MacAuley replied before turning his attention back to Tygan, "Any luck with your datamining yet?"

The scientist nodded. "Only a little at the moment, but what I've found is… intriguing. For starters, I've encountered _no_ interference from the Black Queen thus far. So our foe is either choosing to observe us without interruption, or the software's controller was routing commands through the CCTS network."

"What are the odds of option one?" Beagle asked.

"I flooded the system with a combination of Vahlen's diagnostic tools and the Atlesian technician's anti-virus suite." Tygan explained, his eyes still glued to the slightly damaged terminal in front of him, "Both programs flagged suspicious code in the system, but neither has noted any changes to the registry between when I ran the software an hour ago and now. The Black Queen is certainly there, but she appears to be laying dormant. The worm would have to break the quarantine that Vahlen's program set up, and that would alert me to its activity."

So it sounded like they were safe, at least for the moment. A thunderous groan echoed through the structure to remind them that 'safe' was a relative term. Amity still lay perched above a large precipice. The group had spent half an hour after their crash slowly recovering and waiting for something to shift and indicate that they needed to evacuate immediately, but no such dangers seemed to materialize. Still, everyone was ready to move at a moment's notice if their situation changed. When nothing seemed to follow the creaking of the derelict station, the Amity team let out a collective breath.

Beagle slipped into his command mode, "Alright, we gotta be efficient with our time here. Sen, bundle up some of those hard light generators so we can take them with us when we get out of here. Doc'll love to get her hands on some new toys, I'm sure. Tygan, take a moment to try and download the hard light controls to my scroll before getting back to your datamine. I'm sure I don't need to tell you to be backing up your shit every chance you get. Mac, go with Altinsoy and try to salvage as much power as possible from the reactor. Kelly, we're going on a scouting mission to fortify the remains that overlook No Man's Land between Amity and the treeline. We haven't had any curious Grimm wandering our way yet, but we need to be prepared if we can't use the station as a makeshift fortress."

The Captain grabbed some of the rebar from Jane's pile and the two moved towards the Colosseum's perimeter. Several large pieces of debris that fell off of Amity during its descent remained intact even after it crashed into the dirt, leaving the Amity team with a position that looked far more defensible than Beagle had expected. Without a word, the two soldiers got to work digging their steel spears into the ground to create a phalanx line while keeping their eyes on the forest.

"Is XCOM always dealing with shit this crazy?" Kelly asked as she shoved another piece of rebar into the dirt.

"Just about." Beagle answered, "And it always seemed to get progressively crazier. First came the little grey men. Then they started spitting poison. Then they grew flesh-reaving talons. Then they built doom robots. Then even bigger doom robots. Then they started to mind fuck us. Then they _really_ started to mind fuck us. Then they almost turned the planet into a black hole…"

He looked up from his handiwork and gestured into the air, "And then we found a new planet."

The two soldiers took a moment to lean against a natural barricade of twisted metal and look out into the forest. Jane broke the silence with a sigh, "Well, hopefully we don't die on the new planet. At least not until I get to see more of it."

Beagle gave the Lieutenant a funny look. "Girl, did nobody teach you the concept of 'never say die?' Shit."

"Right. Forgot that you were already cursed to begin with." Kelly answered with an eyeroll.

Her partner returned his attention to the forest. "Damn right I am. And the fact that I'm still standing in spite of The Curse is a testament to my determination to stay amongst the living."

"Movement ahead." Kelly said, flipping over to the covered side of the barricade and pulling out her shotgun. Beagle followed suit and gripped his rifle as he barely peeked around the side of the debris wall.

"Wish I had my launcher with me." He muttered, his body motionless as he tried to get a look at what Jane had spotted, "Not much survives a salvo from Old Faithful."

Kelly strained her ear to listen for their contact's approach. "Whatever it is, it's not making much noise. Any noise, in fact."

"Just my luck that I'm the one to discover a fucking stealth Grimm." Beagle groaned.

"Full disclosure: I'm ditching you for a squad that isn't jinxed the moment we reconnect with Central."

"I wouldn't blame you."

The duo remained motionless as they focused on sniffing out the contact. They sat and waited, yet nothing came close enough to wander into their quiet overwatch. Beagle played with the safety on his rifle as he slid another inch out from behind his cover. He had a pretty decent view of the field by now, and his eyes scanned the flattened trees in the morning sunlight to find nothing out of the ordinary. A lack of movement from his partner told Beagle that Kelly was having similar luck.

"Sure you saw something?" The Captain whispered.

"Positive." The Lieutenant answered.

"Shit."

Beagle toggled his commpiece several times and waited to hear MacAuley's response toggle to indicate that his adjutant understood the warning message. To his surprise, however, an unfamiliar toggle whispered back in his ear. Jane raised an eyebrow at Beagle's frown as he tried the warning toggle once again. Just as before, the same incorrect response answered.

"Swear to God, Mac…" He muttered. The toggle rang in his ear one more time before it finally clicked. The response he kept hearing wasn't the second half of the warning acknowledgment toggle.

It was the first half of XCOM's universal handshake.

"This is Captain John Beagle." He called out, "Identify yourself."

"Master Sergeant Blake Belladonna." A voice answered with a tinge of amusement, "Took you long enough, Captain."

Beagle whipped his head over the barricade and feasted his eyes on a welcome sight: Sabretooth leaning against a piece of metallic junk and grinning back at him. The bags under her eyes and the distinct lack of an arm told Beagle that Blake didn't exactly waltz through last night's events, but she was alive, and she'd found him.

"It's good to see you, too, kiddo. Please tell me you've got some good news."

Blake nodded, "Sure do. Why don't I tell you about it after you gather your team and we make our way back to the cruiser?"

* * *

A/N: I think the dick joke is, to date, my favorite thing I've done with MacAuley. It's just so... right.

On a more serious note, I made a passing reference in this chapter to something that I think needs to be talked about, and that is the matter of scale in the World of Remnant. I've gone back and forth on how big Vale should be, how much devastation was caused during the Vytal incident, and how long it would take to rebuild. After doing some research, I realized that Vale is... big. Like, extremely big. For example, if you look at a map of Vale and notice that Beacon is at the end of a small winding river, and then you look at a long-distance shot of Beacon, you realize that the small river is actually a massive gorge. Some fine folks on the internet have gone to even greater lengths to determine how big the kingdoms are, and 'cities' like Vale and Atlas are basically the size of states or countries.

Why is this important? Well, I was worried that an XCOM-esque campaign set in Remnant would be rather limited, since there are only four primary population centers. Upon understanding the size of those cities, however, it's very easy to recognize that each one can be treated as multiple regions/territories (particularly Vale, now that it's a bunch of safe zones that are growing organically as they push back against the Grimm-controlled ruins). Adds a bit of flexibility to some of the stuff I have in mind. But it's also important to define, because I don't think the show does a very good job of defining it. It's hard to get a sense of scale from canon, which confused me to no end until I was shown the Beacon/River example. So I think I'd like to define Vale as the size of New York state. It's a little smaller than some of the various calculations floating around the net, but I think it's large enough to make things interesting.


	27. Operation Avenger

A/N: Let's play a game. It's called "catch the subtle Zhang reference hidden in the chapter."

* * *

Two days passed since Bradford's meeting with Ironwood, though they felt like weeks. So much had happened in the aftermath of the catastrophic battle, so much progress had been made, and yet so much work yet remained to be done.

Bradford was relieved to finally have all of his personnel recovered, and the news of the Amity Team's survival came as a welcome surprise. Bradford knew that Beagle was only 'Playing Dead' when he requested that the Central Officer deliver a message to 'Papa Doorn,' but the fact remained that the Captain's team had gone down with a giant, explosive death trap. That they were able to not only survive, but recover potentially valuable technology and data from the wreck was one more piece of good fortune that XCOM desperately needed in its efforts to get back on its feet after losing contact with Earth. Beagle's decision to stay with the Cruiser Team (rather than trek all the way back to Vale) was met with whole-hearted support on Bradford's end. From the sounds of the Cruiser Team's reports, Nicho's group did an excellent job fortifying their position, so Bradford had no concerns for Tygan's safety. Beyond that, Bradford couldn't think of a better use for MacAuley and his engineering cohorts than to add them to the team hard at work on the cruiser's reconstruction effort. He'd dispatched several of his Scouts with a pair of MECs yesterday to carefully navigate their way to the outskirts of Beacon where Blake would be waiting to guide them safely to the wreckage.

Comms were, to a lesser extent, back online. Engineering had rigged up several short-range transmitter/receiver systems that allowed effective communication between the Safe Zone and the Cruiser Team. Sensitive data was transmitted via "MacAuley Protocol." Bradford didn't ask how the protocol worked, and knowing Mac, wasn't sure he wanted to. At the end of the day, the engineers knew how to talk to one another and the Central Officer was provided with frequent progress reports, so he wasn't about to complain about the methods used. He did notice an amused twinkle in Dr. Shen's eye when the Chief Engineer first told him about the protocol, however.

The amount of sick and injured taking up space in XCOM's makeshift infirmary dwindled considerably since the hours after the catastrophe, which allowed Dr. Vahlen to direct a majority of her attention and resources towards Pyrrha Nikos. Vahlen very quickly confirmed Pyrrha's worst fear that she did not have a solution to the huntress's unfortunate condition, especially with the available tech. Bradford scrambled Ren with Fonseca's team to a nearby hospital to see if the medics could salvage any supplies that might help Pyrrha, but Vahlen had privately expressed extreme doubt to Bradford that anything could be done at present for Sergeant Nikos. If she had access to her old lab, perhaps the situation would be different. As it currently stood…

Vale's recovery efforts, while better than Pyrrha's, were still suffering from several major setbacks. Bradford knew that the sheer size of the city would mean slow progress, but that wasn't the only problem facing the population. A team of noncombatants escorted by a pair of huntsmen had found the Safe Zone late yesterday evening, claiming to be part of the Valean Corps of Engineers. Bradford found out after a quick debrief that most of the corps had been dispatched to shore up fortifications on Vale's perimeter that fell during the massive Grimm onslaught. While the vulnerabilities lay open, Grimm would continue to trickle into the city and any eradication efforts would be an exercise in futility. Several teams of huntsmen had been dispatched to escort and protect the corps while they did their work, but the volume of Grimm they expected to find meant that they would need to move carefully, and moving carefully meant slow progress for the engineers. Several sub-groups from the corps, such as the one that found its way to the Safe Zone, were tasked with assessing the internal state of the city and formulate a long-term recovery plan for Vale once the main detachment had accomplished its mission.

After a day's worth of rough analysis, the engineers estimated that Vale would remain in its current broken state for at least several months, and it would continue to remain vulnerable for the better part of a year after that. Restoration of the CCTS (somehow… the corps wasn't going to throw personnel into _that_ meat grinder) might reduce that time table, since it would allow Vale to coordinate with the other kingdoms, but that wasn't a sure thing. And with Ironwood pulling the majority of his forces back to Atlas in a few days' time, the odds of an assault to reclaim Beacon were slim-to-none.

Bradford was still going over the data reports that the engineering team had kindly left for him when a knock on the door to his makeshift office drew his attention.

"It's open."

The familiar slouched figure of one Qrow Branwen made its way into the room, though Bradford was mildly surprised to see Goodwitch, Port, Oobleck, and even Taiyang follow in behind him.

"Did I miss a meeting?" Bradford asked. It was a possibility, given how much work Bradford had to juggle. True to his promise to Shen, he'd gotten better at delegating work, but there was still enough left where a couple of details and appointments might slip through the cracks.

Qrow, however, shook his head. "Not quite. I've got some bad news, though. Something that is relevant for all parties present."

"Ozpin?" Bradford guessed. Not that it was difficult to figure out.

"Ozpin." Glynda confirmed.

Bradford glanced down at the tablet in front of him, sighed, and tossed it aside on the table.

"Shit." The Central Officer breathed, rubbing his eyes. "Dead? Or just missing beyond a shadow of a doubt?"

"Could be either." Qrow answered, "Oz and I had a multitude of contingency plans to keep in contact if he ever needed to make himself scarce. He hasn't left me a message on any of them, which is impossible unless he's being held against his will on another continent. So that makes Option Number Two a possibility. If he's dead, however, and his killer took the body… well, we won't be seeing Oz for a while."

The Central Officer wasn't sure what Qrow meant by his cryptic comment about a dead Ozpin, but given all the bullshit he'd learned about the Maidens, the idea of an immortal Ozpin didn't seem too far-fetched.

"We knew that this was a non-zero possibility. So what's the plan? XCOM stands to help in whatever capacity we are capable of." Bradford offered. He stood up and stepped around his table to stand directly in front of his guests, "Which admittedly isn't much right now, but we're working on changing that."

Glynda nodded. "We are well aware of your plans, Bradford, which is actually why I am here with my colleagues. Given that our highest priority is finding Ozpin and rescuing him if he is alive, working directly with you is our best chance for success."

An interesting proposition, though the fact that these teachers were willing to drop everything to search for Ozpin made Bradford wonder just what exactly the man had done to earn their unyielding trust and allegiance.

"I suppose you won't find the answers you're looking for by sitting around in Vale." Bradford mused. He glanced at Taiyang, "Although, while it makes sense for the Beacon staff to take a leave of absence while their school is occupied by Grimm, won't Signal still be in session for the coming school year?"

"Classes have been suspended until further notice." Taiyang answered, "And you'd be crazy if you thought I'd let my girls go off on a dangerous mission without me again."

"I thought you of all people would be acutely aware of the humiliation that comes with helicopter parents." Qrow snorted.

Taiyang slugged Qrow in the arm and laughed at his teammate's pained yelp, "You're one to talk… Uncle Qrow."

The two teammates fell into a lively squabble, and Bradford leaned back against the table to enjoy the humor of the moment. He'd noticed a sharp decline in the quantity (and, he hated to admit, quality) of comedy that was getting thrown around between operatives and personnel ever since Beagle's extended leave of absence, so he'd learned to appreciate the bouts of banter as they came.

Still, though, there was business that needed to be taken care of. After an impressively loud throat clearing from Glynda silenced the two huntsmen, Bradford started to dig into the logistics of how to best utilize his new personnel. "Dr. Oobleck, I've started to make preparations for a transport team that will take my Chief Engineer to the cruiser tomorrow afternoon. Given your propensity for the sciences and your skills as a huntsman, I think you would make an excellent addition to his group, as well as an ideal escort for the journey."

"Absolutely!" Oobleck agreed, "It would be my honor to work with Doctor Shen on what might perhaps be one of the greatest technical marvels of our time! To take an airship, thoroughly destroyed by combat, and covertly piece it back together again in such a way that avoids the attention of the Grimm? You have my utmost thanks for choosing me to assist the good doctor in this critical endeavor!"

Bradford grinned at the excessive display of enthusiasm. Though some of his associates had begun to roll their eyes whenever they sensed the onset of one of Oobleck's 'episodes,' the professor's enthusiasm never seemed to get old for the Central Officer.

"Professor Port, I would ask that you join your colleague on the journey to the cruiser. The Grimm situation in the Safe Zone is under control, and I would like to have someone of your talents overseeing the security and defenses of the airship as our engineers continue their work to repair it."

"An excellent idea!" Port said, snapping a smart salute at Bradford, "You have my word that the Grimm won't lay a finger on your hard-working craftsmen!"

Next. "Professor Goodwitch, I would like for you to help coordinate the security of our Safe Zone and identify key personnel we can train to take over its operations when we withdraw most or all of our assets to the cruiser. I think we may want to leave a small skeleton crew behind to assist, but they will need some serious logistical support if we want the Safe Zone to grow over time and work to reclaim more of the city from the Grimm."

Glynda offered a curt nod, "I suspect you will want to make use of my abilities in the final stages of the cruiser reconstruction. Unless your construction teams pull a miracle and finish their work in the next three days, I will have no trouble prepping the Safe Zone before you need me at the ship."

"I can see why Ozpin speaks so highly of you." Bradford smiled. He turned his attention to Taiyang and Qrow, "Gentlemen, we're going to need manpower, supplies, and contacts in order to both keep our HQ operational and to maximize our chances of sniffing out hints of Ozpin's whereabouts. Qrow, there's no question that you're the ideal candidate for the 'contacts' bit. Tai, we need to strike a balance between combat assets that we leave here to help keep Vale secure and those that we should bring with us. CFVY and ABRN are both firm locks for the away team, so I need you to coordinate with Goodwitch on the manpower situation here. And once we're out of Vale, it can't hurt to have you putting your talents as an instructor to good use to train up some of my operatives in Remnant's special brand of combat."

"Gearing up for war, eh?" Qrow grinned, "Well I bet She is too, so I don't exactly blame you. And it just so happens that I already have a lead or two for the intelligence side of things. The first one is lying unconscious a few doors down from your little command post."

"I'm sorry?"

"Qrow was doing his thing in the city and ran into Roman Torchwick, a known Valean criminal." Taiyang explained, casting an annoyed look at Qrow, "He was gravely wounded, scavenging inside an abandoned home, and failed to put up any resistance beyond his initial attempt at a sneak attack-"

"Not sure about that one. He wielded that umbrella with all the wild strength you would expect from a cornered rat." Qrow cut in, very clearly amused by his run-in with Roman.

"Our spymaster had the wherewithal to subdue rather than kill his assailant." Glynda continued, "It is likely that he is the one behind the rogue Atlesian airship. We planned to inform you after we finished with our first order of business."

"Not my fault I found an easy segue into the news."

Bradford recalled the report he originally received from Nicho's team about their murderous captive and how she was part of a commando duo that very nearly managed to wipe out the Lieutenant's strike team. Evidently the little cloaker's partner managed to Mary Poppins himself after Nicho threw him off the ship. Nicho's report also pointed out that the diminutive fighter stymied all efforts to interrogate her. The only thing she'd responded to was Voodoo's psi attack during the fight, and Nicho didn't have any other psi operatives after this Roman had murdered the Master Sergeant. Bradford had dispatched Annette to see if she could fix that problem, but perhaps Bradford could also leverage Torchwick against Neo, or vice versa.

"It's certainly worth trying to pump him for information." Bradford agreed, "Qrow, you said you had a second lead…?"

Qrow nodded. "I know a guy. Although, it might be more accurate to say that my niece knows a guy."

* * *

" _Contacts getting close from the south. Take care of them, Dagger Team._ "

For a second time, Arslan found herself in Annette's squad. With them were Blake, Orryn, and one of Coco's teammates named Fox. The leader of CFVY had taken a keen interest in XCOM, apparently. Arslan couldn't blame her, since she was guilty of the same, and she was interested in seeing Fox's fighting style.

"Nice and quiet, Dagger." Annette reminded the team, though it went without saying. Dagger was formed as a first responder squad, and comprised of fighters specifically for their ability to silently engage and eliminate anything that wandered within the airship's perimeter. XCOM operatives remained on alert as they watched over the construction crews, but their louder methods of combat were only to be used as a last resort. Arslan had to admit, she was impressed with the technical aptitude of these otherworldly engineers. A few of the more mechanically-inclined huntsmen (such as Ruby) had opted to join in with the repair efforts while the rest worked with Beacon's Professor Port to provide security for the operation. That became easier said than done when news broke that several of XCOM's mechanized units were needed to transport Gravity Dust from the crashed colosseum, but Arslan didn't bother concerning herself with that. Port could figure out the logistics of his little field trip, and Annette was depending on her to help keep the ship itself hidden and safe.

"Ursa." Blake reported, "Three Majors plus an Alpha. We should probably come at them from above."

"Arslan, would you kindly give me a lift into the canopy?" Annette asked. The other three had already begun to make their way up using various means, and Arslan reminded herself that the Sergeant (no wait, the Major) didn't have the same mobility training as the rest of the huntsmen. Apparently Ren from JNPR was helping her with that, but Arslan wasn't surprised that Durand still needed some help from time to time before she really got her sea legs under her.

"Catch." Arslan threw the end of her rope dart at Annette and started to scramble up one of the trees while her partner grabbed the dart and secured it. Annette started her own efforts to climb into the canopy, and Arslan used the rope to make the journey easier. While she was still mildly disappointed and let down by the revelation that Annette wasn't actually a huntress, she certainly possessed the determination and tenacity of one. And whatever she lacked in basic huntress training, she more than made up for it with an array of other skills. The Major's mental abilities were particularly interesting to Arslan, especially after Annette's first 'demonstration.' Arslan quickly learned to develop a healthy respect for the psionic operatives of XCOM after Annette's mild poke left her with a headache for an hour.

Durand finally reached Arslan's tree branch, and the huntress couldn't help but tease her friend, "I'd like to point out that you needed help to get up here while Blake was able to do it one handed."

"Yeah well, the fact that she's a cat probably cancels out her handicap." Annette whispered as she handed the dart back to Arslan.

"Where I come from, we have this thing called 'Faunus Sensitivity Training,' and I really think you could use-"

"Durand has saved my life more times than I can count on my hands." Blake interrupted.

"Six times." Annette added, "She's saying I saved her life six times, since she can only count up to five."

"... Plus, she's not wrong." Blake said, cracking a grin.

"Bears are coming in range." Orryn noted, "The big guy looks like he might be a problem. How are we divvying this up?"

Arslan got her first good look at the targets and realized what Orryn meant. She'd seen her fair share of standard Ursa as well as their Major brethren. These 'Alphas' that started popping up, however… They carried the usual adornment of bone plating and back spikes that marked the Majors, but the armor covered even more of their flesh than usual. Arslan couldn't even see any hide from above, and could only hope that the Alpha had a soft underbelly that the team could exploit. Cracks and gashes in the bone armor indicated just how battle-tested this monster was, and the distance kept by the other three demonstrated the deference of the Majors to their elder.

Blake took a moment to think before giving out orders, "Fox and I will take the Alpha, though I'm not certain we'll be able to kill it quickly. That leaves a three-on-three for the remainder. Deal with them however you like, then support us if necessary."

Arslan and Annette exchanged looks. Their two-step Disrupt and Kill method worked well against the Beowolves during their stint on the Refugee Road, so it couldn't hurt to try that again here.

"No time like the present. You ready, Blake?" Fox asked.

"Yes. Dropping in three… two… one."

Blake fell first, followed closely by Fox. The two of them easily avoided the bone spikes on the Alpha's back and drove their respective blades into its neck and flank. It roared in surprise, though Arslan noticed that Blake's weapon was turned harmlessly from its neck while Fox's weapon only chipped off a piece of bone plating. The remaining three assassins leapt into action before the Majors could react and respond to the assault. Daggers flew past Arslan as she flung her weapon groundward and yanked herself towards her first victim. As she raced towards the Ursa, a sensation of invigorating quickfire tingled at the back of her neck and rippled through her veins. One of the perks of working with the psionic Major, as Arslan had discovered early on. She cocked her arm back and delivered an aura-infused palm strike to the monster's face. The Ursa stumbled backwards for half a second before Annette ran past Arslan and drove her sword straight down through its leg. A flying dagger ripped through its throat to silence the monster while Arslan and Annette turned their attention to the next target.

"So do you have a semblance?" Arslan asked as she swayed under an overhead swipe from the second Major.

"Probably." Annette answered, "I haven't figured out what it is yet, if that's what you mean."

Arslan blocked another strike from their foe and watched as Annette raised her sword like a fencer and darted in to drive it into the bear's chest.

"I thought Belladonna was the one giving you sword lessons."

"It was mostly Pyrrha, actually." Annette corrected as she formshifted her weapon into a shotgun and used the Grimm's body like a silencer as she pulled the trigger, "Picked up a few techniques from Weiss along the way, though."

"Major." Blake cut in. Arslan and Annette looked over to see the Alpha clearly wounded, but still going strong.

"Tag us in, Sabretooth." Annette answered, ripping her sword out of the lifeless body of the second Ursa, "We'll keep it busy while Orryn takes out the third and you can step back and reassess."

Arslan tethered herself to the Alpha and pulled herself into its threat range while Annette circled around to flank it. The Alpha lashed out at the newcomers, and quickly made it clear why Blake needed to call for backup. The amount of force behind each of its swipes was easily thrice that of its lesser brethren, and with far more of its skin protected by bony armor, Arslan struggled to find an opening to exploit.

A _crack_ from the Ursa's rear announced Annette's entrance into the fight as she lopped off one of the weaker bone spikes adorning the monster's hide. The Ursa reacted almost instantly with a surprise backhand and sent Annette tumbling through the clearing. Arlsan flung her dart out and hooked her partner, and she swung the Major around to bring her back into the fight.

"Thanks." Annette grunted as she picked herself up from the dirt and brushed the grass off her shoulders, "Wasn't expecting that."

Arslan fell into a defensive stance, Annette cracked her neck, and the bear sized them up with its menacing glare. Blake and Fox took up positions to the rear and waited to see how Arslan and Annette would choose to engage their foe.

"This thing isn't playing around." Arslan noted wryly as the beast reared up on its hind legs and bared its teeth at the huntsmen.

She noticed a gleam in Annette's eye as the Major brandished her sword and returned the monster's gaze, "Neither are we."

As one the four huntsmen dashed forward while the Ursa swung its forearms down with ground-shattering force. Blake and Arslan tethered themselves to the treeline and swung away from the churning earth while Fox and Annette deftly leapt over the shockwave. Gambol Shroud's shuriken-like handle lashed out and found a chink in the armor on the bear's flank, and the two frontliners used the distraction to strike at the monster's limbs. Arslan's rope secured itself to a bony spine, and she pulled herself in for an Aura-charged palm strike to the back of the Ursa's neck. Hairline fractures grew like a spiderweb from the epicenter of the huntress's explosive blow.

The Ursa cocked its arm as it prepared to swat away the ground fighters, but a silver dagger zipped through the trees and ripped clean through the open paw. The bear roared (much to Arslan's annoyance… so much for a stealth operation), but the huntsmen fought through the aural pain and maneuvered to set up their next assault.

"Fox," Blake called out, "Give me an opening."

Fox whipped his blades around into a forward position and dove at the bear while Annette juked in the other direction to provide a followup distraction should the first one fail. Twin fangs buried themselves in the Ursa's rear, causing it to buck in pain and try to unseat the mounted Arslan who had chosen to remain strapped to the Grimm's back. She yanked on her rope to twist the Ursa into a favorable position for both Blake and Annette. The former wasted no time coming in low and running her sword along the (thankfully) exposed underbelly.

Annette grinned, and Arslan watched the Major crouch low before easily launching herself twenty feet into the air. The Ursan rider yanked again on her rope to pull the monster's face up, and Annette crashed her sword down its gaping maw a few seconds later. La Volonte ripped through the Ursa's throat, and Annette's momentum brought the Grimm crashing face first into the dirt while the Major formshifted her weapon and put two slugs down the bear's throat.

"… Remind me again why I had to give you a boost into the tree earlier?" Arslan asked as she hopped off of the evaporating beast.

Annette shrugged, "Because we're friends now?"

"Adrenaline is one helluva drug." Orryn offered as he left his vantage point to regroup with the rest of Dagger, "It's definitely a lot easier to pull off those kinda tricks when you're in a do-or-die situation."

"Sounds about right." Blake agreed. She keyed her comm and reported back to the ship, "Threats taken care of. Got a little noisy at the end, so we're going to sweep the area for more contacts."

" _Understood. Good hunting, Dagger._ "

Arslan eyed her pseudo-partner as the team started to move once again. By this point, she genuinely believed that Annette didn't have any sinister motive behind keeping these sort of surprises to herself, so she was willing to believe Orryn's theory that adrenaline was the driving factor behind her latest feat of strength. Given how new to huntressing the Major apparently was, it didn't entirely surprise Arlsan that Annette had more power than she realized.

Unlocking her semblance was going to be an interesting experience.

* * *

Hei Xiong didn't even bother looking up from the glass he was washing behind the bar at the sound of the front door opening. More than a couple of terrified citizens had stepped through those doors in the wake of last week's madness, and though he was enjoying a minor bump in business on account of the refugees spending their time and money at his club's amenities, his charity was getting close to its limit. Sure, building a good public image among the locals was a smart decision, but he needed to set boundaries and establish when enough was enough. Protecting people wasn't cheap, and the 'profits' he made off of their drinking and gambling seemed to be going right back into security costs. If news was getting around that Junior was accepting one and all under his roof…

"Hei Xiong?"

Junior had made the decision to 'retire' the flashy strobe lighting and the loud music that was once popular among his patrons, as his men had reported that the Grimm wandering the city were seemingly drawn in by the noise. His substitute choice of mood lighting and softer tones (and the lack of clubbers wildly dancing on the central floor) allowed him to clearly hear the man call for him by name.

 _That_ got his attention, though he made no move to react. That's what lackeys were for.

"Who's asking?" Came the gruff reply from the doorman.

"Someone who is very interested in doing business with your well-connected boss."

Hei stopped wiping the glass and considered the stranger's response. Gambling, gun running, protection rackets, black market Dust dealing… Junior had spent a lot of time building up and running his low-key criminal enterprise. He never did anything too reckless to draw the ire of the fuzz, and reading people was an important part of walking that fine line. He'd learned early on how to tell when someone was bluffing with a junk hand and when they were packing a full house. From the tone of the newcomer's voice, he was playing with pocket aces.

That certainly warranted some attention.

Junior glanced up from the bar to get his first look at his guest. Although the bags under the man's eyes indicated that he'd been rather busy in the aftermath, Junior couldn't deny that he was otherwise sharply dressed. Clean slacks, a smart green vest over a white dress shirt with rolled-up sleeves and the top of a blue and black tie all indicated that this man was no stranger to professionalism. At the same time, fingerless gloves, a few cuts on his forearms and a bandage on his bicep, and a sidearm holstered on his hip told Hei that his guest wasn't afraid to get dirty, either. He was flanked by a man and a woman, both well-built and both exuding the same confidence as their boss. And while their attire didn't pop quite as much as their boss's, Hei noticed that the duo was definitely dressed for wetwork. The man caught Junior's eye and raised an eyebrow. After the doorman gave him a similar look, Junior nodded, put down his glass, and let out a quiet sigh as he waited for the trio to approach.

The strangers made their way through the main hall of the club, and a hundred pairs of eyes watched their progress as guests and security alike looked on with curiosity at the mysterious man and his entourage. Several of Junior's men walked in step with the newcomers, hands casually resting on their hips and eyes alert behind their matching shades as they searched for any sign of trouble. Junior offered his guests a cautious, concise greeting once they finally reached the bar, "Welcome to my establishment. How may I help you?"

"I think I'd like a drink before I get down to the brass tacks." The man looked up from the bar and flashed Junior a knowing grin, "How about a strawberry sunrise? No ice."

Oh. _Oh._ So he was one of _her_ acquaintances, was he? Well, surely she would have told him that she wasn't exactly popular around here after the last couple of times she dropped by, and surely she would have told him that dropping her name wouldn't have gone over well.

"This some kind of joke?" Hei asked, his voice barely above a whisper.

The man shrugged. "A little bit, yeah. But I seriously could go for a drink right about now. This city's industrial district is a killer on the throat."

Junior had half a mind to clock his guest right then and leave his men to deal with the bodyguards. But he couldn't deny that the man's opener took some balls. Junior reached under the counter and pulled out one of his stronger drinks. No way in hell was he going to be making a goddamn Sunrise for this guy, but he didn't mind taking the opportunity to gauge how well his guest could hold alcohol. Plus, if he really was here to do business, it couldn't hurt to start by eroding the man's mental acuity a bit.

His guest accepted the glass with a nod and sampled the offered liquor.

"Yep. That'll do it."

While he was mildly impressed that the man didn't immediately choke on the hard stuff, Junior didn't want to spend more time humoring his antics. "So now that we've dealt with the… pleasantries, why don't you tell me why you decided to step foot inside my establishment?"

"Because you're a businessman." His guest answered, swirling his cup and looking Hei dead in the eye, "Or so I'm told."

Hei gestured at their surroundings. "I run a club. Congratulations on having a pair of functioning eyes."

"You do run a club." His guest agreed, "A club that has, at present, thirty guards armed with an assortment of machine pistols, hand cannons, and shotguns, a proprietor that specializes in explosives, a Dust processing and packing room next to the garage, a network of hidden access points into the sewers for discreet travel, heavily fortified storage facilities for illicit tech and the aforementioned Dust, a panic room in the basement..." The man looked around with a squint, "And I don't see the lovely pair of combat specialists that Master Sergeant Xaio Long told me about."

Master Sergeant…? Either way, this man's intel was startlingly accurate, even if he had Blondie giving him information. She never knew any details about his side businesses.

"Make your point." Hei gritted.

The man nodded, "We are in the business of helping people, Mr. Xiong. Saving lives. In addition to your club's… amenities, you have a large network of assets, manpower, and information, as well as a distinct familiarity with the city of Vale. People know you, recognize your men, though perhaps not for the best of reasons. Still, this city has provided you with many opportunities to grow your business, and it has given you enough wealth to give you flexibility in deciding what your next business venture will entail.

"And while some may look down on you for the questionable nature of your work," The man gestured around the room, "… there are many who look to you as a source of strength and protection in these troubling times."

"I didn't become this successful by wasting money on doing 'the right thing.' You do realize that, don't you?" Hei asked. While his guest certainly had the attire of a pragmatic problem-solver, the words coming out of his mouth were annoyingly lofty and optimistic.

"From one businessman to another, believe me when I say that I would never ask you to do anything for free." The man assured, "But I am asking you to think carefully about how you plan to evolve your enterprise over the coming months. Consider the difference between a parasite and a symbiont, Mr. Xiong: A parasite will suck its host dry and leave nothing but an empty carcass behind. And unless the parasite is able to find another victim, it kills itself in the process. A symbiont, however, knows how to beneficially support its partner so that it can continue to thrive and grow." He looked Junior square in the eye as he delivered the punchline of his point, "You and I need to help ensure that Vale recovers from this travesty so that it can continue to provide for us and the hundreds of thousands of people that depend on its survival."

"And what do you expect me to do?" Hei asked, still mildly annoyed. The man had a fair point about his relationship with Vale: without a healthy city, people wouldn't exactly have the luxury of spending their time and money at a club. But how was it his job to fix everything?

Apparently, his guest was a mind reader. "In case your network hasn't found out yet, there's been a bit of a coup at the highest levels of government in Vale. A string of coordinated assassinations have effectively crippled the kingdom's leadership. Combined with the fact that Beacon's headmaster is now missing, and that leaves the various makeshift strongholds in this massive city are now running on autopilot with a disabled chain of command. The huntsmen and security personnel are doing their best to hold down the fort, and there's barely enough leadership available to organize the reconstruction efforts.

"Sure, those might seem like ideal conditions for a power play, for one such as yourself to rapidly expand your material wealth while Vale's law enforcement is all but powerless to stop you. And you would be correct to make that assessment… in the short term." The man finished his drink and slid the glass back across the table to Hei with an appreciative nod, "I believe you to be savvy enough to know what a better course of action may be for your business's, and Vale's, long-term growth rather than an immediate windfall. This city is running on fumes and in desperate need of anyone who is even remotely able to make a difference." The man continued, "You and I both know that you, Mr. Xiong, are one of those people."

Hei gave the man a hard look, "And what if I don't? You come into _my_ club and make demands of _my_ time and resources? It sounds like you're trying to coerce me into doing dangerous work that shouldn't be my responsibility in the first place."

"It's not a threat." The man countered, "Because I am confident you will look at the situation, weigh all of the information, and agree that helping Vale offers the best Return On Investment for your resources. And I wouldn't come in here and tell you all of this without putting my money where my mouth is. My associates here?"

The ones that had sat down with their boss and made no action other than to stare wordlessly at Junior? Yeah, they were starting to unnerve Hei a little bit.

"… I offer them for you to use as you see fit, as a token of my confidence that you will do what must be done. They come with no strings attached, and you are free to put them through whatever trials and tests that you feel are necessary to be assured of their loyalty."

"I already have henchmen." Hei commented dryly, "Thirty of them armed with an assortment of machine pistols, hand cannons, and shotguns, if I recall correctly."

Even as he said it, though, the man tapped his ear, fell silent for a moment, and then cracked a grin. What was his game, now?

"Have you already forgotten the surprise you felt at all the intel I had regarding your operations? Your man on the roof nodded off for a nap five minutes ago. Your shipment of Dust that left the garage while we were speaking would have run into a not-so-small Beowolf problem as it crossed the intersection of Hargrave and Needlerock if it weren't for my people, and you are more than welcome to ask your men if they've noticed the sharp decline in Grimm activity in this district over the last three days."

Hei looked past the man and glanced at one of his grunts, who nodded in agreement with their guest's claims.

"I don't say this things to embarrass you, Mr. Xiong." The man continued, "I only do it to highlight the competency of my operatives and to convince you that accepting my offer is a good decision. I was first advised to seek you out four days ago. My associates have spent their time between then and now performing reconnaissance, securing the area, and learning as much about your business as they possibly could so that I could walk into your club today with the preparations I needed to present you with a business proposal that is worth your time. You don't need to know why my associates and I care for this kingdom, because it doesn't change the fact that we are willing to go through great lengths to see to its safety. And if the best way to do so means we make you a little bit richer? We don't see any problems with that."

Interesting. He always relied on the twins as his ace-in-the-hole whenever a business negotiation required an exceptional amount of muscle. At the same time, these 'operatives' apparently possessed skills that went beyond brute force. Gaining assets that specialized in infiltration and intelligence gathering sounded like a pretty enticing deal, The loyalty thing could be an issue (even if he did test them, as the man suggested), but they would see very quickly what happened to people that double-crossed him.

"And what makes you think I'm worth _your_ time?" Hei asked, "Why are you wasting your efforts down here in Vale's underbelly when you could be working with the government that is, as you've already pointed out, currently in disarray?"

The man nodded, acknowledging that Junior had a fair point. "It's true that working the government angle would probably be a productive use of my time. But the underbelly, as you call it, is no less important. Vale's council may be the heart of the kingdom, but the people? The districts? They are the lifeblood. I've made a lot of friends and acquaintances over the course of my career, and the ones I found in low places were oftentimes the most reliable."

"… Alright, I'll play your game." Hei answered. It was time to see if his guest was bluffing or not, "You leave these two here with me, and then I want you to take the rest of your operatives and make yourselves useful somewhere else."

The man nodded, "That's all I wanted, to be quite honest. Although, there is one other thing I would like to mention."

What now?

"There is a good chance that you will find me swinging by your neck of the woods from time to time to see if you're willing to engage in further business transactions. These will be more _material_ in nature than today's discussion, I think you'll be relieved to hear. I didn't mention your storage facilities simply because I wanted to add them to the list of intel I had on this place. If you have any wares that are relevant to my interest, I would be more than willing find a way to pay you for them."

"Fair enough." Junior answered, "I might even be feeling generous enough to give you a discount if your guys can meet my expectations like you seem to think."

The man stood up, straightened out his vest, and tossed a Lien note onto the table, "I'm giving you two of my best for a reason, Mr. Xiong. You can be certain that they will do far more than meet your expectations. Have a good day."

Rather than watch their leader walk out of the club, the two lackeys kept their attention trained on Junior, evidently waiting for him to give them instructions. Hei waited for the man to leave before turning to look at his newest recruits.

"Well then. Why don't we take you down below to meet my assistants? I'll let them decide whether or not you're all talk."

* * *

Dr. Shen studied his tablet as he watched the power team's progress as they integrated Amity's Dust crystals. He'd encountered difficulties with the process until Vahlen suggested he modify some Elerium for use as a bonding agent. Shen made the call to sacrifice the power plant on one of the MEC's, and Vahlen walked him through the conversion process until the power team had a sizable supply of Elerium thermoset. Shen would have to get back to developing Lightning Dust as an Elerium substitute for the MEC, but the short-term trade-off was well worth it when the assembly crew finished its work less than an hour later.

"Systems Check." The Chief Engineer instructed. Several metrics on his tablet responded as Poncho's team tested the ship's power supply with the newly-integrated propulsion system.

"System response looks normal so far, boss." Volt reported, "Grav crystal seems to be holding up."

Indeed, Shen alternated between checking the metrics on his workstation and visually inspecting the propulsion crystal as fresh power flowed through the massive rock. The structure vibrated slightly, and Shen wondered if the thermoset might crack from the energy, but everything appeared to be stable after a few minutes of waiting for something to go wrong.

" _Comms are still working._ " Samuelson confirmed, " _We're experiencing minimal change to our signal, which won't be difficult to correct._ "

" _Internal power is still functioning nominally, which is a relief for our brig security team._ "

" _Navigation systems are online._ " Big Sky announced, " _They will require tuning, but they'll work for now._ "

" _R &D bay has adequate power for all systems to function, Doctor._" Tygan said, " _My experimental shielding remains operational, and Nicho is reporting no issues with the machine shop._ "

Good. "Repair crews, report."

" _Latch systems are installed and ready to be engaged once we make the big push, Shen._ " Ruby reported, " _We'd like to offer our compliments to the machinist for his craftsmanship._ "

" _The machinist is flattered, Captain._ " Nicho answered, amused.

" _All prep work has been completed, sir._ " MacAuley said, " _Not much else we can do before we slap this sucker together and pray._ "

" _This sucker has a name, Mac._ "

Dr. Shen glanced to his right and made eye contact with Glynda. The two of them had done a walk around the ship after she arrived yesterday, and she made it clear that the ship was simply too massive for her abilities to push back together without assistance. Dr. Shen had spent his time since then working with Engineering to develop and produce as much rigging as possible in preparation for the final step.

It wouldn't be enough to make the ship permanently airworthy, but that wasn't their goal. If they could hold the cruiser together long enough to make a jump to a town away from Vale (Patch, perhaps?), XCOM could work on safely repairing the ship without alerting an undue amount of Grimm from the noise. After a slight detour over the Safe Zone so that Firebrand can ferry the last couple of passengers to Bradford's newest HQ, XCOM would be saying its first farewell to the city of Vale on its mission to find Ozpin.

"If there are no setbacks, then perhaps we should begin our final countdown."

Glynda nodded and left to make her way outside where she could better view her work.

"Captain Beagle, if you would be so kind…?"

A senior staff meeting yesterday resulted in the Captain's appointment as the coordinator for the final push, and Beagle took his new responsibility to heart. He worked tirelessly with MacAuley, Shen and the various crews to develop a flight checklist to ensure that the Big Push ran as smoothly as possible in light of the circumstances.

" _Alright boys and girls,_ " Beagle said, and Dr. Shen could imagine Beags pulling out his pad of paper to read through the pre-flight checklist one more time, " _looks like we're almost there. One more check, and it's time to make the magic happen. TacSense, report."_

" _TacSense is go, sir._ " Samuelson answered, " _Scanners reporting minimal Grimm activity in the threat zone._ "

" _Perfect. Dagger Team, report._ "

Annette's voice sounded off on the comms, " _Dagger Team is go, sir. Standing by to move at Tactical's word._ "

" _Security?_ "

" _Weapons are locked and mustaches are waxed!_ "

Despite his slightly goofy attitude, Peter Port absolutely pulled his weight in the reconstruction effort. Dagger team was XCOM's reactive response to Grimm that wandered within range of Samuelson's Tactical Sensors, but Port had taken on the role of overseeing general security and the safety of personnel as they came and went. His biggest project was coordinating the transportation of Gravity Dust with Ryder's MEC corps, and the fact that the team suffered zero casualties during the mission spoke greatly to the Professor's skill as both a huntsman and a tactician.

" _Welders?_ "

" _Welders are go. Got everything we need to glue this scrapheap together after Goodwitch does her thing._ "

" _This scrapheap has-_ "

" _\- a name. We know, Captain._ "

" _Then use it. MEC's?_ "

" _MEC systems are go._ " Ryder reported, " _Six units and the Odin standing by to provide additional structural support._ "

" _Flight?_ "

" _Flight crew is go._ " Big Sky said with his usual drawl, " _Should be just like flying a 747 back home._ "

The comms were quiet for a moment, as Beagle seemed to pause and double-check to make sure he didn't miss anything. Shen watched as Volt's team continued to repair and survey the gravity crystal. Thanks to Vahlen's thermoset, the impact damage to the crystal was hardly noticeable anymore. The repair crew had already burned through ninety percent of the available supply, however, so they would have to start getting creative in their efforts to improve efficiency once they had the luxury of time and safety. The current bubblegum-and-paperclips hack job would have to be enough to get them out of Vale.

" _Looks like we're ready for the final countdown. Propulsion, warm up thrusters on my mark._ "

Shen could practically hear Beagle take a deep breath as silence pervaded the airwaves before the Captain issued his command.

"… _Mark._ "

The crystal, and the ship, hummed to life, and Shen felt the hairs on his arms stand on end as the propulsion room became saturated with energy. None of the safety gauges were sounding off, however, which told the Chief Engineer that the energy emissions were mostly harmless. As Volt's operators dialed up the propulsive output of the crystal, Shen heard the faint sound of creaking metal as the back half of the ship started to push forward under its new power.

"Propulsion is live, sir." Volt announced.

" _Contacts inbound at 2 o'clock._ " Samuelson reported.

" _We've got their attention now!_ " Port exclaimed, " _I estimate only a few minutes before a critical mass of Grimm is drawn to the noise._ "

" _Then we'll kick off the countdown timer at t-minus two minutes._ " Beagle ordered, " _Dagger, weapons free. Goodwitch?_ "

The floor shuddered and groaned as Glynda reached out with her soul's will to pull the two halves together. Dr. Shen felt the crystal vibrate as the operator slowly increased output to match Glynda's efforts, and he commented on the radio with passing amusement, "Captain, are we launching an Atlesian cruiser or a Saturn V rocket?"

" _Old man, you have no idea how excited ten-year-old-me is to be doing something like this. You also missed a perfect opportunity to make a Mercury joke instead of an Apollo one. Repair crews, engage latches._ "

" _Throwing the latches now._ " Ruby reported, and a couple of low _thuds_ reverberated through the ship's hull as the heavy locks snapped into place, " _It's a good thing Central left us the MEC's._ "

" _Goodwitch, ease up on the telekinetics so the repair crews can verify latch integrity._ "

The ship groaned again as gravity sought to pull the two halves apart once more. Dr. Shen held his breath, waiting for a jarring sensation or a loud bang to indicate catastrophic failure of the latches, but felt nothing.

" _Latches are holding._ " Ruby confirmed.

" _Excellent. Welders, you're up._ "

" _Piece of cake. Let's roll, Gidjit._ "

" _PLASMA TORCHES OPTIMIZED FOR CURRENT METALLURGICAL COMPOSITION._ "

"They grow up so fast, don't they?" Volt commented to Shen.

" _More contacts at 5 o'clock._ " TacSense warned, " _Smaller and more numerous._ "

" _Dagger-Beta is moving to engage._ "

" _Defense crews, keep your eyes sharp!_ " Port ordered, " _This is where it gets hairy!_ "

Shen switched the active screen on his tablet to view Samuelson's information stream while Volt checked on his operators. Sure enough, the motion sensors picked up a small horde of targets converging on the noisy ship.

" _We are at t-minus one minute and twenty seconds. Welding?_ " Beagle asked.

" _We're making steady progress, boss. I'm gonna have to agree with No-Scope's assessment that the MEC's are making this a helluva lot easier._ "

" _Too many targets for Dagger to handle._ " Annette announced, her voice slightly out of breath, " _We're cutting their numbers, but a lot are getting past us._ "

" _Work faster, Mac. Coco?_ "

" _Barrels are hot, Captain._ "

" _Gunners, you're clear to engage the moment you have LOS. Defense teams, switch to Port's channel and follow his orders to the T. Dagger, wrap up and fall back to the cruiser. Propulsion, how are we looking?_ "

"Propulsion is holding at a steady ten percent of full power." Volt reported. Dr. Shen checked the metrics on his tablet to verify the statement, and was impressed with the ship's performance. Even the Firestorms experienced a larger transient response before settling into a steady state, though those interceptors were admittedly experimental tech. He definitely wanted to spend more time researching gravity Dust with Vahlen after things calmed down on Remnant. "Ready to adjust levels on your order, Captain."

" _Hold while welding finishes patching things up. Be ready to boost output to twenty percent on my mark. T-minus one minute._ "

Gunfire opened up overhead, and Dr Shen took a deep breath. An operation such as this required time and finesse, not a full-blown firefight. Still, they didn't exactly have the luxury of choosing when and where to have their flight test, so the Chief Engineer would have to trust in the skill of the ship's security detail and Port's leadership while he continued to monitor the ship's vitals.

" _T-minus forty seconds. Mac?_ "

" _Doing the best we can, boss._ " MacAuley complained, " _The welds will take more time, but the latches and MECs should hold for now._ "

" _CURRENT WELDS CONTRIBUTE FIFTEEN PERCENT TO STRUCTURAL INTEGRITY ENHANCEMENTS._ "

" _Fair enough. Propulsion? Punch it._ "

The air grew electrified, and several of Shen's safety alarms started to whine. Volt twirled his finger, indicating that the repair crew needed to clear out of the power plant. The propulsion operators could still adjust energy levels remotely through their tablets, but spot repairs would be too dangerous with the chamber energized like this. Shen took one last look over his shoulder into the propulsion room and was happy to see the crystal still holding up.

" _Dagger is at the gangway. Wolves are inbound._ "

" _Not if I can help it._ "

" _Atta girl, Cokes._ "

" _Call me that again, and your ass is going to find out just how much ammo I'm packing._ "

" _Ma'am, yes ma'am._ "

" _T-minus twenty-five seconds. Navigation, start routing grav power to the main transformers._ "

A loud _whump_ echoed through the ship as the potential energy bleeding off of the Dust crystal suddenly found itself funneled through the ship's flight control ductways. Dr. Shen worked with Tygan to test the routing system with bare minimum power and without working Gravity Dust two days ago to better understand how the Atlesian tech operated. While they were able to determine that the internal subsystems of the flight controls were undamaged (the stabilizer fins were a different matter entirely), they couldn't know for certain how the ship would behave once it had actual gravitational energy to work with.

Big Sky coughed, " _Sorry for the rocky start, but we're fully buoyant now. Ready to go for lift-off on your mark, Captain._ "

" _Structures are holding._ " Ruby reported, " _Doctor, it was a really good idea to give the Odin hands last month._ "

" _Penny's reporting that the Odin's integrity-_ "

" _Penny?!_ "

" _Shit. Old habits die hard. Didn't mean to get your hopes up, Captain._ "

" _Gangway is closed and hard light shielding is engaged._ " Tygan said. Several of the Doctor's experimental shields hummed to life nearby to plug a couple of small gaps in the hull. Not a moment too soon, as Shen started to see the beady red eyes of the Grimm as a few of the monsters broke past the wall of ammunition.

" _T-minus ten seconds._ " Beagle answered, " _Feather those controls, Big Sky._ "

The ship vibrated as the pilot poured more energy into breaking Remnant's gravity. Claw's scratched the outside of the ship as the surviving Grimm finally closed to melee range. Dr. Shen watched a couple of wolves try to claw at one of the hard light shields and noted with satisfaction as the force field had no problem repelling the assault. Vahlen would want to spend some time researching further applications of the shielding with Tygan. Perhaps an upgrade to the blast shields carried by the heavy MECs?

" _Five._ "

The engines rumbled, and the room shook.

" _Four._ "

Dirt and sand swirled outside, and the Grimm staggered backwards against the kinetic force generated by the Gravity Dust.

" _Three._ "

Several alarms popped up on Shen's tablet, though a lack of red indicated that none of them were critical.

" _Two._ "

Big Sky put the engines into high gear and Shen held his breath as the ship experienced its first real stress test.

" _One._ "

The ground fell away, and the ship held together as it clawed its way into the sky.

" _Ladies and gentlemen, the Avenger is airborne._ "

" _I think we could have figured that out for ourselves, Beags._ "

" _Don't ruin the moment, Captain."_

Shen analyzed the flashing alarms and reported to the rest of the crew, "Strain gages are holding steady at the fracture site. Our methods of keeping the ship together are working so far. Flight control ducts are seeing increased stress and turbulence, which may or may not be normal. Temperature readings in the Gravity chamber are climbing. Doctor, we may want to look into heat dissipation methods when we have some time."

" _Agreed._ " Tygan answered, " _On my end, power readings appear stable, and the ship's aerodynamics appear to be within the boundaries that we defined. I will advise you if that changes._ "

" _Eeeeaaaaaasy does it._ " Big Sky cooed, as if to comfort the ship and ensure its cooperation, " _She flies like a pregnant whale, but at least we've got plenty of open sky for maneuvering. Swinging around to the south to steer clear of Beacon. We should reach the rendezvous point in a few minutes._ " Big Sky announced.

" _Great. I'll radio Central and let him know we're on our way._ "

" _Flyers are breaking off from their loitering patterns and heading towards the ship._ "

" _Snipers, you know what to do._ "

" _Aye, sir. Ballista is loaded and tracking._ "

" _Main welds are completed, boss. Recommend moving Jaegers topside to assist with the fliers. The remaining MECs will be sufficient to keep the ship together._ "

" _Agreed. Keep on top of the patchwork, Mac. The longer we can hold this boat together, the better._ "

As the ship leveled out, Shen worked on his end to keep problems under control as they continued to crop up. While many of the alarms could be handled with a command or two from his tablet, some of the alarms originating from the Propulsion chamber were really starting to become worrisome.

"Static buildup in the chamber is dropping." Volt reported, "Looks like the crystal just needed a chance to breath after launching this fucker into the air."

Shen nodded in agreement. "So it would seem. We need to get some engineers back in there to check on the crystal's integrity."

"We've got Ginjo in one of the hazmat suits Tygan found in the repair bay. Should help with the static and radiation."

"… And if it doesn't?" Shen asked.

"It's a sacrifice I'm willing to make, sir." Ginjo answered as he donned the helmet and prepped his arc thrower.

" _We've got an escort of Atlesian fliers now._ " Big Sky noted, " _Comm chatter is a mixture of excitement and amazement that we managed to pull this off._ "

Shen checked his readouts again and took a closer look at the strain gages in particular, "We won't be pulling it off for long. Structural gages are showing that we're stable for now, but the fatigue trends put us at roughly thirty minutes of maintained flight until preliminary failure." He tabbed through several of the information streams before adding, "Impressive for a trial run, when you think about it."

Low _thumps_ echoed from the ship's flight deck, followed by a couple of pained squawks from the approaching Griffons. Small arms fire followed the lead of the Jaegers as the marksmen engaged the Grimm.

" _TARGET QUANTITIES POSE MINIMAL THREAT. WILL BE NEUTRALIZED WITHOUT DAMAGE TO AIRSHIP STRUCTURE._ "

" _Good to hear, Gidjit. You keep on top of the repair work with Mac._ "

" _CONFIRMED._ "

" _Alright, let's just keep on steady towards our pickup point, and then we're off to Patch to-_ "

" _To patch up this hunk of junk?_ "

" _Yang, why._ "

* * *

Weiss took a moment to compose herself, make sure that no part of her physical appearance looked out-of-place, and knocked on the door to Dr. Polendina's office. She'd arrived back in Atlas several days ago, took some time to settle in at home and briefly make contact with Bradford's operatives, and made her way to meet with Penny's father as soon as her immediate familial obligations were taken care of.

An old, tired voice greeted her with a quiet, "Come in."

Weiss let herself in and gave a small curtsy to the doctor. Polendina looked up and smiled when he saw his visitor. He gestured to the chair on the other side of his desk without a word and waited for Weiss to take a seat.

"I've been waiting for your visit, my dear." He said, and his kind, fatherly tone reminded Weiss of Dr. Shen as the man took off his glasses, "General Ironwood informed me that you asked to be my daughter's caretaker for the journey back home."

"I did." Weiss answered, as she placed a small lockbox on the table and slid it towards Dr. Polendina. She watched as the scientist took the offering and examined its locking mechanism. A few turns of a knob here, a push of a button there… the box shuddered and broke at the seams, and the detached plates folded into one another to reveal a small chip safely tucked away in the center of the device.

"I just want to say, Doctor," Weiss began as Polendina picked up the chip and carefully put it into his computer station, "That it's been an absolute honor working with Penny. Her optimism kept my team in high spirits and her skill kept us out of harm's way. Your daughter truly does both you and our kingdom-... is everything alright, Doctor?"

Polendina's eyes were glued to his console, and Weiss could see a mixture of sadness and confusion (with a hint of rage) growing as he stared at the screen.

"Penny isn't in here." He said.

Weiss almost choked. "I… what?"

"The size of the data on this drive is too small by several orders of magnitude to be Penny." Polendina said. He finally glanced at Weiss, his eyes narrowed in anger, "Did you know about this?"

Weiss realized that she needed to be very careful with how she chose to answer the distraught father. "No, sir. Penny downloaded herself into the disk in front of all of us: me, Bradford, Ironwood… everyone. Nothing about her tone made it sound like she regretted coming home, nor did it sound like she was being coerced into faking the download."

She carefully stepped around to stand behind Dr. Polendina and glanced at the screen in front of them. "What _is_ on the drive, if it isn't Penny?"

The Doctor tapped the icon of the lone file on the console, and the smiling visage of Penny splashed up on screen moments later. While the image remained a still frame, the unmistakable sound of Penny's voice filled the room.

" _Hello, Father! It's me! Penny!_ " Penny said. Cheerful as ever.

Penny continued. " _I… know that you were expecting a lot more than just a message from me. I know I've hurt you by doing this, and I'm sorry. I really am! You are my father, after all, and I love you more than anything._ "

"Then come home…" Polendina whispered.

" _But that's exactly why I have to stay, father. Look at the Vytal Festival: somebody did that. Somebody that is not happy with the way things are on Remnant. Somebody who will hurt the people I care about if they need to. I can't let that happen!_

" _I would love to stay with you during these dark times and keep you safe from anything bad that might happen, but that's not my purpose. I know that's not my purpose. You didn't give me life and give me the best Atlesian technology to just sit at home. There are people who need help._ And I can help them."

Dr. Polendina looked over at Weiss, who was relieved to see that the rage had lessened considerably now that Penny was talking.

" _The time I spent with Ruby and her friends at XCOM has taught me the importance of doing what is right. And while it hurts me knowing that I am hurting you, this is something I must do. I really hope you understand!_ "

"No…" Polendina whispered, still looking back at Weiss, though his expression continued to soften with each passing second, "I really don't."

" _You've told me time and again that I was destined to do great things, that I had a purpose beyond proving that machines are capable of having a soul. I know in my central processing unit that you call a heart, I know that this is my purpose, and you are the most amazing father for giving me the chance to prove myself to the world._ "

The Doctor turned away from Weiss, gazed back at the image of his daughter, and moved to grab his scroll.

" _One more thing, Father. You must keep this a secret._ "

Polendina's hand froze.

" _If you tell General Ironwood, he will be furious with XCOM! He will fly back to Vale with a lot of soldiers and ships, arrest all the brave men and women who put their lives on the line for innocent people, and demand why they are keeping me hostage. Except this wasn't their idea._ It was mine. _They have no idea that I am still with them, because I know that they would have told me to go home if I asked to stay!_ "

"I wouldn't blame him." Weiss muttered. The Doctor grunted in agreement.

" _I have seen first-hand what XCOM can do as a force for good, Father, and I know that we must make sure they are able to help Remnant. You must make sure that Ironwood doesn't know about this. Please. I'll be home someday soon, I promise! But these are good people, and they need our help._ "

Silence hung in the air as Penny finished her heartfelt plea. Before Dr. Polendina could do anything, Penny finished her message.

" _I love you, Father._ "

The two occupants of the room remained motionless for a long time, The Doctor because he was still processing everything that had happened in the last two minutes, and Weiss because she dared not interrupt her host's train of thought. Slowly, the Doctor started to drum his fingers on the table. The pattern was erratic, sometimes fast and sometimes slow, before he finally slapped his palm on the table and let out a long sigh.

"Tell me." He said, still looking forward at the still image of Penny, "Tell me that she's right about XCOM. That my little girl isn't making a mistake."

This was something Weiss knew how to do. "I have never met a more honorable and dedicated group of men and women. I watched them, day after day, putting the needs of the whole world above their own as they stepped out onto the battlefield, never once caring that each breath might be their last. To them, the sacrifice they might all one day make was worth it if it meant that the innocent might live."

Weiss put a comforting hand on Dr. Polendina's shoulder. "A good friend of mine once said that the people of XCOM do what they must because they must. Whoever was responsible for the act of evil we all saw at the Vytal festival, XCOM will scour the four corners of Remnant to root them out and bring the criminals to justice."

The Doctor thought on Weiss's words for a moment, then nodded. He shut down his console, stowed his scroll in his pocket, and gestured for Weiss to take a seat.

"I'm glad to hear that Penny's trust is not misplaced. That being said, I feel that there is a lot about this XCOM that your Bradford has kept hidden from the General, and that Penny has kept hidden from me."

"... You are right." Weiss admitted hesitantly, "And since you are willing to trust your daughter with her decision, it is only fair that I trust you with the truth. Bear in mind, this may take a while, and I'm not sure you'll believe everything I say."

"Then it's a good thing we have all the time in the world." Polendina answered, standing up and dusting off his pants, "Perhaps I should make us some tea for your story."

Weiss couldn't stop the smile from spreading across her lips as she watched the older scientist walk to the other end of the study and put a kettle on his Dust burner. At this point, she half expected him to ask if she would like Jasmine in her cup, but she decided to draw inspiration from Pyrrha.

"I think that would be a grand idea."

* * *

A/N: True story, I was visiting the Kennedy Space Center while planning out this chapter, and it made me realize that a launchpad countdown was the only real way to write the Avenger's maiden flight. I think that might be my favorite sequence that I've written in recent memory.


	28. Room To Grow

A/N: You know how sometimes you've got a scene or setpiece that you're _really_ excited about, but it's several chapters away? And then you finally get to it, and you finally get to write what's been rolling around in your head for weeks or months? There's a couple of those in this chapter.

* * *

"Decided to finally grace me with your presence, did you?" A snarky voice called out as Bradford shut the door behind him. He walked down the hallway with Annette in tow, passing by the pair of on-duty guards who offered a silent salute to the Central Officer. Annette caught Bradford's eye and the two of them shared a nod before Bradford answered.

"Figured you'd want some time alone after I reunited you with your partner in crime."

The Central Officer had originally planned to bring Ruby as his psionic backup, but decided against it when he realized that Torchwick would probably be less… amenable to holding a conversation if it looked like Bradford was trying to taunt him with 'Red.' The duo took the last couple of strides and looked into Roman's cell. The prisoner sat in a chair against the back wall, his legs kicked out and his hands folded casually behind his head while he smirked at his guests.

"I'm not sure what you're talking about." Roman drawled, gesturing around the empty cell while Bradford and Annette pulled up a pair of chairs and took a seat on the other side of the bars, "The only person you threw into this dump is me. I mean really… I've been on this barge for all of an hour, and you're already trying to play head games with your hostage? You really need to work on your hospitality."

Annette rolled her eyes with a sigh, "Are you going to tell Neo to come out from the corner, or would she like to find herself screaming and retching on the floor again?"

"Major." Bradford said, feigning a reprimanding tone, "We're here to have a chat with our guests, not to get them riled up."

Annette dropped into her chair and folded her arms as she stared evenly at Torchwick, "Right, right. I'm just here to keep him from pulling any funny business. Go ahead and have your little chat while I daydream about ripping his brain apart, neuron by neuron."

"Are all of your little toy soldiers this creepy?" Roman asked, keeping a wary eye on Annette's hardened face while he talked with Bradford, "Because if they are, then I'd like to get off… if you don't mind."

Bradford shrugged, "I mean, can you blame her? You _did_ turn one of her close friends into a bloody mess."

"You should tell your guard dog that it was just business. I'm sure she understands." Roman quipped as he leaned back in his chair. The hairs standing up on the back of Bradford's neck told him that Annette disagreed with their prisoner's statement.

"Would it just be business if I let my guard dog murder your little friend right here and now instead of holding her captive?" Bradford countered. Torchwick's face contorted into a look of fury that the Central Officer had not yet seen from his prisoner, and Bradford smirked. "Act cool and cavalier all you like, Roman, but remember: I hold all the cards in this game. Sure, you're more useful to me alive instead of dead, but I don't _need_ you. If push comes to shove, I will find another way to get what I want. So why don't we stop worrying about Major Durand for now and get to what I came down here for."

"Which is…?"

Bradford got up from his seat and opted to lean against the frame of the prison cell with his arms crossed instead. "I've been told that you live life by four simple tenets: lie, cheat, steal, and survive. I'm thinking that the fourth is a little more important than the other three for you right about now."

"Trying to put on your big boy pants and intimidate a criminal mastermind, are you?" Roman laughed, "Because it's not working."

Bradford rolled his eyes. "Please. I would have hoped you'd have a little more respect for me than that. I'm trying to put on my big boy pants and appeal to your sense of reason. You're stuck here, your jailbreak buddy is standing right next to you, and we have round-the-clock guards making sure you stay that way. You're not going anywhere, and unless you do something to change my mind, you won't be going anywhere for a very long time."

"You think you're some sort of big shot, don't you?" Roman sneered, "You've got your little soldiers, a sort-of-functioning ship, and you think you can strut around like you own the continent? Well let me give you a piece of free advice: _you're fucked._ You want to talk about reason and trying to survive? Maybe you should have taken a closer look at the other horse before you decided to back the loser in this race."

"Again with the idioms…" Bradford mused for a moment before returning his attention to the rest of Torchwick's comment, "So you think She's that powerful, then? Powerful enough to confidently say that she'll beat me without even knowing what my organization is capable of?"

"I saw what your minions can do when they tried to stop the chaos at the Vytal Festival." Roman pointed out, "So far, I have to say that I'm pretty unimpressed."

"Says the man sitting on his ass in a prison cell."

"After it took a squad of fifteen people to take me down. _And_ after I killed four of them."

"Do you really want to bring that back up with me sitting right here?" Annette asked with a raised eyebrow.

Bradford pushed off from the wall with a sigh. "Well, it seems like we're having fun going round in circles here, but I was hoping for something a little more productive. Perhaps I'll swing by here again after you've had a chance to see my operatives in action." He picked up his chair and glanced back at Torchwick, "And maybe the boredom of sitting in a jail cell doing nothing for months might help you cool off a bit."

"You think I'll be stuck in here for that long?" Torchwick laughed, "You're even dumber than she looks."

"We could always break up the monotony by letting Vahlen get her hands on him." Annette muttered under her breath.

"Took the words right out of my mouth." Bradford quietly responded as the two of them left the brig. It was still worth keeping Roman around for now, in the off-hand chance that he might eventually cough up something useful. However, perhaps he could ask Shen to come up with a less labor-intensive solution to keeping eyes on their prisoner.

* * *

Pyrrha let out a quiet sigh at the sound of a knock on her door.

"Come in." She said. Not like she was doing anything in here, anyway. Sure, maybe Vahlen thought Jaune was in here with Pyrrha (which, in fairness, would be a pretty solid bet) and didn't want to interrupt the two huntsmen, but the four-time-Mistrali-champion-turned-helpless-cripple was alone for the time being.

As expected, Vahlen walked in with her usual cart of equipment, toiletries, and food. The smile on the Doctor's face was genuine, but Pyrrha found herself struggling to reciprocate her caretaker's optimism. Vahlen parked the cart at the foot of Pyrrha's bed and took a seat next to her patient. Pyrrha continued to look straight ahead and waited for the Doctor to get on with whatever activities she had planned for the visit.

"Good afternoon, Pyrrha." Vahlen greeted, "How are you doing this afternoon?"

"Fine." The huntress answered. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Vahlen nod.

"Any changes to your condition that you'd like to report?"

"No."

The Doctor's fingers tapped away on her tablet as she started to take notes.

"Any unusual pain?"

What a stupid question. "No."

"Any issues that I should know about?"

"No."

"Any questions that I can answer?"

Sure. Lots. "No."

Vahlen sighed, "Very well. Would you like to start with your lunch or your hygiene?"

"… Hygiene, I guess."

Might as well get the most humiliating part of the day taken care of. A reminder that she now needed help with literally everything that didn't fall under 'breathing' or 'holding a conversation,' though now it seemed like even that was slowly becoming something Pyrrha struggled with. She tried to let her mind wander while Vahlen grabbed supplies from the cart and busied herself with her usual routine. While the places her mind traveled to these days tended to be of the darker variety, anything was better than keeping herself in the present. At least Vahlen was kind enough to keep the room locked during their daily ritual so that Pyrrha didn't have to deal with the moritification of others seeing her like this.

This… Pyrrha had come to terms with the fact that _this_ wasn't going away. Her Aura had regenerated a few short hours after she'd woken up next to Jaune, and it had plenty of time to to fix _this_. But it didn't, and Pyrrha was left in a state where she couldn't do anything but rest, sleep, and talk to anyone who bothered to stop by her corner of the medical wing.

She'd been surprised at how bitter she'd become. Sure, full-body paralysis was horrible, but at least she didn't die from her tower fall. Jaune did his best to visit her as often as possible, and the rest of JNPR and RWBY would stop by from time to time to see how she was doing. Dr. Tygan had extensive experience in genetics and biochemistry, and so there was some hope that somehow, maybe, he'd be able to do something to fix her. But with only rudimentary tools on hand (and other, more important matters that required his attention), Pyrrha didn't expect him to throw all his resources at fixing her in the near, or even intermediate, future.

Why did she deserve it, anyway? She was a failure. A world-class, renowned champion huntress for the better part of her professional career, and she couldn't even win the most important fight of her life. She needed Jaune to save her from becoming an insignificant blood smear at the base of Beacon tower, and becoming a cripple was the penance she deserved for failing to protect Vale. Because of her, who knows how many innocent lives were lost once the CCTS ceased to function? Why did she deserve to live and they didn't?

The cruelest joke of all, though, was the fact that she couldn't even atone for her sins. All her friends were outside, hard at work helping XCOM get back on its feet and she was stuck. Stuck, and forcing people like Vahlen to spend time away from their own work to help her live. Pyrrha wasn't just useless: she was making others useless as well. And yet, they would hide behind words and phrases like "Earth owes you a debt that could never be repaid," or "You were one of Mistral's best, and I believe you will be again."

Well, she was 'well on her way to being Mistral's best' by getting rolled over onto her side by Vahlen so that the Doctor could get to work.

Almost by instinct now, Pyrrha's mind replayed the tower fight on repeat as she fought in vain to figure out where her critical mistake had been. After spending days going over the battle again and again and again, Pyrrha was almost certain that her memory had begun to twist the events into something more dramatic, more crushing than what had actually happened. It didn't stop her from thinking through the events for the thousandth time. Every missed parry, every blocked counterattack, every misstep stood out like a painful memory as Pyrrha's brain walked her through the showdown with Cinder. Perhaps her penance wasn't to help make things right again, but to instead suffer as a prisoner of her own mind until the world managed to fix her mistake.

Pyrrha's vision returned to the ceiling as Vahlen rolled her onto her back once again, and the sound of a wash cloth getting dipped into a bucket of water indicated that Pyrrha's caretaker had moved on to the far less denigrating step of washing her hair.

"Why are you doing this?" Pyrrha asked.

Vahlen hummed questioningly from her position behind her patient as she massaged shampoo into Pyrrha's voluminous tresses, "Doing what?"

"This." Pyrrha repeated, "This whole thing we do, day after day. Surely you can get someone else, an orderly or something, to deal with me while you work on more important problems. You've got a ship that needs fixing, don't you?"

The Doctor didn't say anything as she continued to wash Pyrrha's hair, and the huntress figured Vahlen didn't have a good answer for her question. Maybe Vahlen felt guilty that Pyrrha's involvement with XCOM had brought her to this sorry state? Well that was dumb, since she'd been paralyzed defending her school from _that bitch_. If she was given the chance to do it all over again, Pyrrha wouldn't hesitate. She'd just make sure not to get thrown from the top of a tower the second time around.

"Are you familiar with the Pope, Pyrrha?" Vahlen asked.

She'd heard Yang mention him once or twice, yeah. "You mean the one that's always shitting in the woods?"

Vahlen giggled, "It's good to see that you haven't completely lost your sense of humor. But yes, that one."

"Not really."

"He is the spiritual leader of one of the largest religious groups on Earth. Millions upon millions of people look to him for guidance, for hope, and for assurance that theirs is the right way to live life."

"And is it?"

"Who can say, really?" Vahlen answered, and Pyrrha could hear her pick up and gently rinse a wash cloth in a bucket of water as she prepared for the lengthy task of cleaning all the suds out of Pyrrha's considerable mass of hair, "In either case, the current Pope is a man named Francis. While some might argue that his predecessor had become more focused on the aesthetics of his station than the teachings of his church, nobody can say the same of Francis."

Pyrrha said nothing, opting to just listen to what Vahlen wanted to say.

"He did his best to highlight the importance of humility and mercy to those that followed him. Rather than look down and pity the poor and the homeless, he spent his time washing their feet and giving them a sense of hope and pride. He would be vocal in his opposition to views that ran counter to his faith, but he would not turn someone away simply because of their beliefs. If they were truly trying to devote their lives to God, then who was he to judge them?" Vahlen paused for a moment to rinse out her washcloth in the bucket once more before continuing, "For me, personally, he reminded me the importance of stepping back from my life to determine what is really important and separate it from what I _feel_ is important."

Satisfied with her patient's hair (for now, at least), Vahlen moved on to Pyrrha's limbs to both wash them and work them out to fight the effects of atrophy. Pyrrha couldn't feel anything that would let her know if the mild exercise was helping, but it was one of the things Vahlen never skipped. The Doctor didn't always give Pyrrha a full wash, but she worked out the arms and legs every day without fail.

"I'm no Pope, of course." Vahlen added with a slight laugh, "But you asked me why I don't delegate these duties to someone else. Would you believe me if I told you that it's the part of the day I look forward to the most?"

Wait… what?

"Do not mock me, Doctor." Pyrrha warned, "If this is a joke, it isn't funny."

Vahlen stopped massaging her patient's leg and looked up, and Pyrrha could see an expression of hurt on her face.

"I would never dream of mocking you, Pyrrha. I understand you're in a bad place right now, but I hope you know that." She resumed her ministrations and explained herself, "It is as you say, that I have a ship that needs fixing. An almost impossible task, given what Bradford needs from it. My colleagues managed to hold it together with duct tape and glue for long enough to make the journey to Patch, but to make it truly airworthy? So many problems needs to be solved. And everyone looks to me for the answers. I relish the challenge, and I would be lying if I said I'm not proud of my importance to this organization's survival."

Pyrrha watched as Vahlen worked her way down one leg and back up the other. It almost reminded her of watching Jaune do something similar, but for an entirely different reason. She idly wondered what he was doing with the rest of their team now while she waited for Vahlen to continue her story.

"But it is all too easy to get caught up in my work and spend every waking hour on the multitude of problems and projects that need addressing for this ship to become airworthy again. And while that may be important for XCOM, there is something else that is important for _me_. Francis reminded me of the importance of humility, and Weiss gave me the push I needed to learn the value of camaraderie. It is not 'beneath my station' to bathe and exercise you every day, as you seem to think. You, along with everyone else I have had the pleasure of working with at XCOM, are deserving of respect. It doesn't matter whether you might be out killing swathes of Grimm, working with the engineers to repair the ship, or laying here in the infirmary, you deserve to be treated with dignity. You are a remarkable woman, Pyrrha, and it hurts my soul to see you believe, little by little, that that is no longer the case.

"And besides," Vahlen added, and it did not escape Pyrrha's notice that the Doctor was spending a little extra time on her feet today, "Visiting you every day is my way of relieving the stress that comes with my job. Sure, some aspects of helping you are… unpleasant, but the rest of it -washing your hair, exercising your body, helping you eat- is both relaxing and humbling. It gives me the opportunity to spend a few hours in peace doing something that matters to me on a personal level. Because you are both an important part of XCOM and one of the people I consider a friend. You are one of the kindest souls I have ever met, and it is an honor to do what I can to help you."

"I… thank you, Doctor." Pyrrha answered meekly. What else could she even say after that?

"Moira."

"I'm sorry?"

Vahlen seemed to hesitate for a moment before repeating, "Moira. Call me… call me Moira. Calling me 'Doctor' doesn't seem quite right given how close our relationship has become. I would like you to call me by my first name. Weiss learned it after she started helping me with my social issues. I think you deserve the same courtesy."

"… Weiss never told us she knew your name." Pyrrha commented, and it slowly dawned on her the gravity of Vahlen's request, "And you can be sure that I won't tell anyone, either."

The two women fell into silence while Vahlen continued her work. After another half hour of cleaning and exercising, Vahlen let out a quiet sigh and straightened herself up.

"Well, I think that about covers the Hygiene. Why don't we get you dressed and have a late lunch together? Jaune brought back a lovely sun dress from his last venture into town and asked me to help you into it the next time I saw you."

Jaune didn't tell her about that when he stopped by a couple of hours ago. A smile crossed Pyrrha's lips as she was once again reminded of the goofy, genuinely sweet antics her partner would go through to make her happy. Pyrrha didn't know if she'd ever truly get used to her condition, but perhaps she owed it to her friends to try and be happier and find solace in the little things.

"That sounds like a grand idea, Moira."

* * *

Ruby slowly swept her scope across the landscape as she scouted the southern end of Patch with her friends. Nora had joked that they should give themselves a team name if it turned out they'd be working together like this a lot in the future, and Jaune suggested that RNJR would be fitting if they were to be assigned border security and assassination missions like this one. Ruby didn't know how Pyrrha (or her own team) would take the news that their friends had gone and made a new team without them, so she decided to laugh the idea off for now.

"There." She whispered as she finally sighted the Geist hiding in the forest. She didn't know what it meant, but MacAuley had been adamant that they call it an Ent as soon as they found out the monster almost exclusively possessed large trees whenever it decided to wander into town. Patch's militia never had any trouble beating back the Geist whenever it chose to attack, but having an Ent assault the town on a regular basis didn't do any favors for the town's morale. Patch had tried sending her father to deal with the monster on more than one occasion, but his fiery Aura made it difficult to get the drop on the Geist, who always seemed to make itself scarce the moment it caught on that was being hunted. With Ren present to suppress their Auras, however, it looked like Ruby was able to do what her father couldn't.

"Three thousand meters away, aligned with my rifle." Ruby reported, "Looks like it's in a turf war with a pack of Beowolves."

"Who's winning?" Jaune asked as the group got up and slowly approached the targets.

Ruby raised an eyebrow at Jaune's question, "One side is a group of the weakest Grimm known to mankind, and the other is a fifty-foot tree."

"It was just a question, yeesh."

The group pressed forward, staying close to Ren to maintain their element of surprise. The forest was fairly thick on this end of the island, but Ruby could still hear the battle raging ahead. The group halted about fifty meters away from the clearing and took a moment to wait and listen. The wolves were managing to hold their own, if only because the lumbering movements of the Ent were relatively easy to dodge. Those unlucky enough to get caught by a swipe, however, quickly found out just how much power was packed into the living tree.

With the Beowolves constantly circling the Ent in search of a vulnerability, there was no way for the huntsmen to position themselves into a flanking position before engaging. Once she'd seen enough, Ruby signaled for the team to quietly approach the clearing's edge. They stayed low behind a bush to keep out of sight, and Ruby waited for the Ent's attention to turn towards the other side of the clearing before delivering her instructions for an opening strike.

 _Nora. Earthshaker._

Nora gave Ruby an enthusiastic salute before shifting her hammer into a grenade launcher and looking over her shoulder at Ren. Her partner knew all-too-well what Nora was asking for, and jammed his pistols into her hips and discharged XCOM's electric capacitors.

The Grimm stopped fighting for a moment and glanced in the direction of the noise, only to be greeted a moment later with the sight of a huntress erupting from the tree line, a contrail of pink smoke flowing in her wake as her weapon unfolded into a hammer above her head and the small rocket at the top flared to life.

"Never gets old, does it?" Ruby asked as Nora reached the apex of her arc and the trio of teammates watched as both gravity and the elerium booster pulled the hammer maiden down into the pack of Beowolves.

Jaune shook his head as the forest vibrated from the force of Nora's impact. "Brings a tear to my eye every time."

"The hammer trick or the tripled strength?" Ren asked, "Because honestly… the strength scares me. I think she's starting to get addicted to the shocks."

Pained yelps pierced the air as Nora crushed one Beowolf after another in the wake of her blitz, and Ruby unfurled Crescent Rose. "I'll keep that in mind, Ren. For now, though, we should probably help your partner out."

Ruby erupted into the clearing with a bang while Jaune and Ren charged in behind her.

"Focus down the Ent!" Jaune called out, "Ren and I will keep the wolves off of you!"

The two girls locked eyes, shared a grin, and blasted their way into the sky. Ruby hooked her scythe onto one of the Ent's boughs as it turned to face the new threat and flipped herself onto its shoulder. She could see the solitary (and incredibly creepy) eye of the Geist gazing at her as it tried to figure out what exactly to do with the new pest. A pair of shots from Aureate Mercy helped the Grimm determine that Ruby was, in fact, not friendly. Before it could do anything to shake her off, a rocket-powered Nora smashed into its trunk from the other direction, causing the tree to stumble. A reedy groan thrummed from the depths of the mighty oak as the Grimm expressed its anger at getting blindsided. Ruby watched as the end of the branch she was standing on started to grow verdant, and mild surprise turned into not-so-mild concern when the stiff branch became flexible.

"Not good!" She squeaked, and she blasted herself away from the Grimm's reformed whip arm to reassess the situation.

The Ent lurched forward and lashed out with its new weapon, narrowly missing Ren and slicing a Beowolf in two. It ripped through the ground beneath Ren's feet, succeeding in both throwing him off-balance and flinging dirt and rocks at the other three huntsmen. Ruby noticed that the Beowolves had begun a tactical retreat now that the Ent had grown properly enraged.

"Well at least it's not running away." Ren commented as he rejoined his teammates. The ground vibrated as the Ent loosed another angry groan.

Ruby nodded in agreement, "Not yet, anyway. Be ready to give chase if it decides we aren't worth the effort."

"Oh, it's not going anywhere, let me tell you." Nora said, almost gleefully, "I'm breaking those legs, one way or another."

"Jaune? Feel like trying to distract the giant tentacle monster for Nora?" Ruby asked.

"Why do you have to phrase it like that…"

Silver light flowed across Jaune's armor as he activated his semblance and fired up his jump jets. The armored knight sailed through the air, and the Grimm locked its eye on the new threat. Like a cowboy trying to rope an escaping steer, the monster swung its whip around to build up speed before throwing it out to strike at the airborne huntsman. Jaune grunted in pain as the limb slapped him sideways with incredible force. While the blow sent Jaune careening over the forest canopy, JNPR's leader wasn't out of the game just yet. Two small stabilizer fins deployed from his flight pack, allowing him to pivot around, aim himself at the monster, and blast his way back into the fray. Just as the Ent was readying its whip to strike at his teammates, Jaune slammed his shield into the monster's back. He dug Crocea Mors into the ancient bark, and the sword ripped through wood as it slowed Jaune's descent back to the ground.

The silver shield rose up just in time to protect Jaune' face from the Ent's rigid tree branch. He skidded backwards as the Grimm turned its attention on the annoying pest that refused to stay down. Silver aura flared as the sylvan whip struck the knight, but Jaune held firm. His shield turned aside blow after crushing blow, and he lashed out with his sword whenever he saw an opportunity to fight back. Each nettling strike only served to anger the monster even further, and the blows began to rain down harder than before.

A _bang_ and a _crunch_ reminded the Ent that the other huntsmen weren't going to simply watch their friend get ground into a pulp. The monster fell to one knee as Nora's herculean blow shattered its leg into splinters while Ruby and Ren got to work cutting away at the bark and branches protecting the Ent's neck. The vine whipped around once more in a desperate attempt to protect the Grimm. Ren ducked under the writhing branch while Ruby let the flailing limb cut itself on her outstretched scythe.

"It's starting to panic." Ren observed.

"Good, because I'm getting tired of being its chew toy." Jaune groaned.

The tree crashed with another shattering _crunch_ , and the flailing limbs and the pained screeching served to punctuate Ren's point. Ruby pinned the branched arm into the dirt while Ren set to work slicing the vine limb into sizable chunks.

Nora helped Jaune up and nodded at the quivering eye of the trapped Ent. "Go get your revenge, boss."

Jaune launched himself into the air, brandished his sword, and plunged it straight into the blood-red oculus as he fell back to the ground. The Grimm shrieked, the tree thrashed, and the forest fell silent.

* * *

While Lily reached into her bag to pull out another roll of wire and a handful of components, the sound of boots crunching fall leaves marked the approach of her guardian.

"Area's clear for now, and I've got the local area fairly mapped out." Lieutenant Kelly announced. Lily looked up to see the woman sling her shotgun over her shoulder and take a knee next to the contraption Lily was busy adjusting, "How's the science project going?"

"I think Dad asked MacAuley to purposely break a couple of components in the detectors before giving them to me." Lily muttered, slightly annoyed as she returned to her work.

"Keep you on your toes, I take it." Jane nodded and watched as the young woman tinkered with the electronic device, "Smart dad."

"Easy for you to say."

Kelly got up and walked over to a nearby tree stump so she could both keep an eye on Lily and their surroundings. Lily knew that they were close enough to Patch where the Grimm probably knew to steer clear, but it was still comforting to have a friendly shotgun on standby.

"Well, maybe your dad or Mac didn't have anything to do with it." Kelly suggested, "I'm pretty sure this tech came from the latest batch of goods we got through Central's contact in the slums of Vale. Black market isn't known for having their stuff in perfect working condition."

Fair point. Bradford had just come back a few days ago on XCOM's bullhead with Master Sergeant Belladonna, Tygan, and a few other huntsmen from his second check-in with Mr. Xiong. Not only did her familiarity with underground organizations make Blake the ideal candidate for dealing with a crime syndicate, Blake had a personal interest in the hardware coming through Junior's door. After a month and a half of working with only one arm, Lily couldn't blame her. Bradford had apparently promised Blake that although he was specifically looking for equipment to help with the ship repairs, anything that Tygan believed could help fix her arm would take top priority over everything else. Since Blake looked no different upon her return from the field trip, Lily guessed that the hunt continued for replacement parts.

Maybe Lily could look into that if she had some spare time.

After another couple of minutes spent rewiring a set of questionable power leads, Lily saw the indicator light wink to life on the detector's front panel.

"We're green." She announced, slipping the Lightning Dust crystal into the case and snapping it shut, "You're up, Lieutenant. Tell me where you think this should go to maximize coverage, and I'll get it rigged up."

The Lieutenant stood up on her tree stump and pointed towards the west. "Small cliff that-a-way acts like a natural funnel, and the trampled grass tells me that the Grimm agree. Probably best to keep the sensor low to catch the crawlers who would slip under a raised camera. I'd say your best bet would be… here."

Lily nodded, moved her gear over to where Jane had indicated, and started the careful process of mounting and concealing the sensor.

Apparently Lieutenant Kelly wanted to chat to make the time go by faster, "So how'd you become a tech head at your age? If you don't mind me asking. I heard about the miracle you pulled off with your little band of survivors during the attack."

"My dad. He made sure I shared his passion for engineering.' Lily explained, pulling some lockwire out of her bag, "Started off with build-it-yourself toys when I was little. He knew how to increase the challenge each year just enough to make sure I struggled without pushing me to the point where I lost interest. As I was introduced to certain key concepts in school, he started to add stuff like programming, electrical engineering, dynamics…"

Lily snipped the excess wire and looked over at Jane. "What about you? Did you always know you'd be going into the military?'

"More or less. I liked to rough house when I was a kid. Dolls were all fine and dandy, but there was nothing quite like beating the crap out of someone who thought it'd be funny to give you a wet willy. The little shits learned pretty quick to knock that off." The Lieutenant flashed a guilty smile at Lily, "Err… sorry about the language."

"Yeah, watch your fuckin' mouth." Lily quipped with a smirk.

That got a chuckle out of her bodyguard, "I knew there was a reason I liked you. But yeah, thought it would be cool to join the Naval Service. Spent a few years making a name for myself in the navy, got tapped to try out for the ARW. Who could say no to that?"

Lily didn't know exactly what the ARW was, but she'd seen Jane fight several times over the past month and knew she didn't pick up that kind of prowess and discipline from patrolling the high seas. "Got your ass kicked in the ARW?"

"Goddamn right I did. And I loved every minute of it." Kelly answered with pride.

With her work done on the sensor, Lily stood up and slung her bag over her shoulder, "Sometimes I wish I could fight like you guys. I've had friends in XCOM point out that they'd be in bad shape without logistical support and R&D, but it's kinda hard to see badasses like you kicking butt in the field and not feel like… like I could be doing more for the team, you know?"

Jane checked her scroll and started walking towards their next indicated sensor location. "Who's to say you can't do both? Combat Engineers are invaluable. Just ask Mac."

"You know my dad would never allow it." Lily answered with a half-hearted chuckle. She couldn't really blame her father, though. He'd almost lost her once, and Lily had no illusions about just how violent and deadly war could be.

"All it takes is a lucky shot, and you go down for your last dirt nap." The Lieutenant agreed, "You're fortunate that you have the skills that allow you to do amazing things without having to take a single step onto the battlefield. You have to truly believe that it's your calling if you want to commit to combat operations. Otherwise, you're just wasting your time and putting your squad at risk. But if you just _know_ that the front lines are where you belong, then even your old man won't be able to hold you back for very long."

The two walked in silence for a while, and Lily chewed on Kelly's words.

"You could always hit up Durand for her thoughts." Kelly suggested, "Central always seems to have our schedules mismatched so I don't get to talk with her much, but I know that she was basically thrust into a combat role rather than having the luxury of choosing it. How's she doing, by the way?"

Lily shrugged. "Good, I think. Tai and Qrow take turns beating the crap out of her when she's not busy on an operation. I've heard them say that she's picking up the training a lot faster than they expected her to."

"If they'd seen her fight during the war, they'd know that she's anything but your average combatant."

The two women shared a laugh. In an effort to foster international cooperation and boost morale in the wake of Earth's most devastating war, XCOM released numerous clips from operative bodycams showcasing humanity's prowess against the alien threat. Annette, being a highly-decorated officer, a psionic, and (perhaps most importantly) the literal savior of humanity, was easily the poster child for Bradford's little PR campaign. Even though Lily had only recently gotten her first taste of watching Annette fight in the flesh, she had spent countless nights staying up late watching XCOM's premiere femme fatale. As the promotional vids progressed further and further into the war, Lily noticed that the aliens would always engage Durand first, as if she had become Ethereal Enemy Number One.

Not that she blamed them.

Even so, Lieutenant Kelly had a point. While the videos had only shown XCOM's highlight reel from the war, Lily had learned of the losses suffered by the organization within her first week aboard the Temple Ship. Beagle had taken her on a tour of the Anthill (to show her around 'his old stomping grounds'), and Lily noticed a wall full of pictures. Curious, she'd stopped the Captain and asked him what those people did to earn a place on the wall. Even from a passing glance, she'd recognized some of the faces from the videos, and wondered if the wall was a list of XCOM's most decorated soldiers. When the Captain solemnly explained to Lily what she was actually looking at, the younger Shen felt like she'd been kicked in the stomach as her brain processed the true cost of the war. All of those action heroes she'd spent hours upon hours watching -Claymore, Casino, Chilong- she had thought them to be nigh invincible, soldiers of a truly unbeatable caliber. But that wall had _so many names_.

Lily and Jane reached the next location not long after, and the Lieutenant got to work scouting out the area while Lily grabbed another detector from her pack. Maybe she didn't need to join the front lines to feel like she was doing something useful. Setting out little alarm gizmos certainly felt like busy work, but Lily looked back on all of the tech developed by her father and Vahlen that had prevented the Vytal Incident from becoming the Vytal Calamity: The Kingfisher suits, allowing XCOM to become masters of mobility; the motion sensors that gave the good guys eyes on Grimm movement; MacAuley's comm system that let Bradford mount a coordinated response; and, of course, the refinements to the Hyperwave Relay itself, allowing Van Doorn to deliver precision troop deployments to hot spots across the battlefield.

All of these things seemed like achievements way out of reach for someone like Lily, but her father told her on multiple occasions that everyone had to start somewhere. As she dug out the tools she'd need to fine-tune the detector in her hands, Lily decided that she'd ask her father this evening where he had started.

It'd been a while since the last time he sat her down for a good story, anyway.

* * *

" _Rise and shine, Ozpin. I think you've had enough sleep, don't you?_ "

Ozpin sighed quietly as he sat up from his bed, rubbed his eyes, and reached for his glasses. He had woken up fifteen minutes ago, but he knew that Salem enjoyed the idea of being the one to wake him up on her terms. No point in shattering that illusion.

" _As I am a gracious host that believes in hospitality for her guests, I will switch off my monitoring system for the next few minutes while you make yourself decent. I trust you'll be a good boy and won't even entertain the thought of funny business while I afford you this luxury._ "

Salem was lying, of course, but pretending that she trusted Ozpin was simply another part of the game they'd been playing over the years. Which was a shame, as he had no intention of trying to pull off some kind of elaborate escape. With all of the security Salem had in this place, and the immense power that she could draw upon in this poisoned land, any effort to leave would be almost suicidal.

Almost.

Still, Ozpin preferred a cordial Salem to an enraged one, so why poke the bear?

"Of course. I will be down in fifteen minutes to join you for breakfast."

" _Ten minutes, Ozpin. I am hungry, and I don't like waiting._ "

Another power play. Ozpin would make sure he was down in twelve, and he would offer a polite apology while the two of them silently acknowledged that he wasn't _completely_ at his captor's beck and call. "Ten minutes, then."

Ozpin went about his brief morning routine. He had been relieved to learn that Salem had the decency to provide him with a quality shower and washroom, though he never pushed her hospitality by spending too long under the warm water. He stepped out of his room exactly ten minutes and thirty-three seconds after their conversation had finished, and Ozpin then counted out the remaining minute and twenty-seven seconds that it took for him to reach the dining hall so that he opened the door precisely at the twelve-minute mark as he had planned.

"You are late." Salem said from across the room. She was already seated at the long table, her chin resting on one hand and an annoyed expression on her face.

"And you are as beautiful as ever." Ozpin answered with a smile. He took his place at the other end of the table and kept his eyes locked with Salem's as they waited for food to be served.

"You know that flattery means nothing to me, old man." Salem sneered.

And yet he could see the hint of a smile tugging on the edge of her lips. Ozpin closed his eyes and bowed his head apologetically, "My apologies, for both the comment and my tardiness. I wanted to make sure I looked my best for you."

Salem made a point of sighing dramatically, "I _suppose_ that is an acceptable reason for leaving me to wait here for an extra two minutes. Shall we?"

Ozpin nodded and took his seat at the other end of the table, and several servants stepped into the dining hall with platters of food in their hands.

"You've become more adept at making your thralls life-like since the last time I've been here." Ozpin mused. He'd noticed them the last couple of times Salem invited him to dine with her, but he never took the time to really pay attention to the details until now. Indeed, the servants had eyes that appeared alert, and they didn't shuffle or shamble like their predecessors. He watched as they laid down their platters before Salem sent them scurrying back to their posts with a wave of her hand.

Salem was clearly pleased with her guest's observation. "Do you like them? I've spent a considerable amount of effort adapting that particular strain of Geist to improve their functionality. The cooks, of course, are the real deal. Wouldn't want to have inferior food because something in their little brains got lost in translation, now would we?"

"They are impressive." Ozpin acknowledged, "Though I'm sure you know that I still believe your efforts would be better spent-"

Salem cut him off with another sigh, "And here I thought our meal was off to a good start. Must you always ruin the mood, Oz?"

"I will never give up on you."

"You should have." Salem answered, her eyes slowly narrowing in clear disapproval of the direction Ozpin had taken their conversation, "A long time ago. And if you even so much as _think_ of trying to pull that cute name-calling stunt again like you did in the catacombs, I will murder you on the spot."

"Even though this is likely the last cycle?"

"Especially because it's the last cycle." Salem spat, "I might even throw a party after I dance on your corpse."

Silence ensued. Ozpin watched as Salem made a show of casually eating her breakfast, as if to show that she wasn't bothered by their little tiff. As if he didn't matter to her. But he knew her well enough to recognize the signs: the almost-surgical manner in which she cut her meat and the laser-sharp focus of her eyes on the assortment of food set before her betrayed the relaxed body language Salem attempted to project. Ozpin, for his part, tried to enjoy the food set before him. The flavor was certainly top-notch, but the twisted feeling in his stomach made it difficult to appreciate the culinary talents of Salem's slaves.

"I wish things didn't have to be this way." Ozpin said halfway through the meal, his voice almost a whisper.

"But that's how they ended up, isn't it?" Salem answered, pausing to take another measured bite of her food, "You were the wizard, great and powerful, who could do no wrong in the eyes of the people. I was the deranged witch, useful so long as the ends justified the means."

"You were respected just as much as I-"

Ozpin ducked as a knife whizzed past his head and buried itself in the unfortunate servant standing behind his chair.

"No one came to my rescue during the cataclysm, Ozpin!" Salem yelled as her hapless victim fell to the floor, gurgling in his own blood, "I was trapped and alone in absolute darkness for months! Now why would that be, if I was respected? Why would that be, if the people loved me? Not a single fucking soul tried to find me!"

Salem paid no mind to her expiring slave as she continued to yell at Ozpin, "Only _they_ came to my aid! _They_ showed me the true path, the one that I follow even now! So you can keep your blind opinions to yourself, old man, because I don't need them!"

Against his better judgment, Ozpin decided to defend himself against the enraged Salem, "You know that's not what happened."

" _LEAVE._ "

The fire in his host's eyes told Ozpin that it was, in fact, a good idea to follow her orders this time. He got up from the table with a sigh and straightened out his clothes.

"The only reason you're still alive is because I want you to bear witness to my victory, Oz." Salem said. She had slowly lowered herself back into her seat, though her eyes remained locked on Ozpin, "I want you to see that I am right and you are wrong. Nothing more, nothing less."

Ozpin hesitated at the door, trying to find the right thing to say before taking his leave. When nothing came to mind, he settled with, "I'll be in my room, I suppose."

While he put one foot in front of the other, Ozpin reflected on his… unique life, and his strained relationship with the woman who was now his captor. After all these years, all the time they spent playing this twisted game and being at each other's throats, the pain never got any easier. While some might say the biggest curse of immortality (near-immortality, Ozpin reminded himself) would be to live with the mistakes and failures of your life, those people had never had the misfortune of slowly watching those closest to them descend into the depths of madness and corruption.

Then again, it would be fair to call Salem's condition one of his greatest failures, wouldn't it?

Ozpin stepped through the door to his room, and just stood there for a solid minute before he realized his auto-pilot had turned off after carrying him to his destination.

"Shit…' He muttered, shaking his head, as if to rid himself of the cloud of memories and regrets looming over his mind. A few moments after Ozpin fell back into his bed, Salem's voice flooded his room through the intercom, " _I suggest you keep the scroll I provided you close at hand tonight. The festivities are sure to be entertaining._ "

* * *

"Status report." Bradford asked as he stepped onto the cruiser's refurbished bridge. His engineering teams had been at this for a little over a month now, and the results were awe-inspiring. The ship certainly had lots of work left to be done, but she'd at least be airworthy again within the next couple of days. R&D would have time later to worry about non-critical aspects of the ship, like the weapon systems. For the moment, Bradford only cared about getting his wings.

Dr. Shen looked up from his workstation in the back of the room. A large interface projected itself onto the table's counter, providing the Chief Engineer with an interactive, top-to-bottom summary of anything and everything plugged into the ship's central system. Like Penny, for example.

 _That_ had been a fun surprise when Ryder and Penny decided it was safe to reveal the latter's status as a stowaway. Bradford had suspected something fishy was going on when he first interrogated the Odin pilot after meeting with Ironwood's delegation, but the Central Officer had to admit that Ryder had a strong poker face. In any case, morale among the huntsmen (Ruby in particular) skyrocketed when they realized that Penny was back, so Bradford couldn't really do much other than instruct the group to keep Penny's secret within XCOM circles to avoid the possibility of the intel finding its way back to Ironwood. Bradford would deal with that particular bridge when it came time to cross it. Several operatives floated a plan of giving Penny the codename 'EDI' to avoid giving away her identity, but the Central Officer dismissed the idea.

"Final structural repairs and modifications were finished while you were away." Shen answered, "The power core could still use some work, but what we have for now is stable. I suggest we make a trip to Amity sometime in the future to salvage more material that we can use to change that from 'stable' to 'optimal.'"

Bradford nodded and looked over Shen's system layout. "Stable is all I'm asking for, Ray. I'll see about getting you more Gravity Dust, though. How are the comms?"

"Comms are much closer to optimal." Shen said with a smile, "MacAuley's work in Patch has given us a strong signal foundation that we can use in the CCTS's absence. Qrow's efforts to make the system blend in with the town's architecture mean that it will remain undetected unless someone knows to go looking for it. The locals all believe that the proximity system was the only thing our outreach program was working on, so they don't have to worry about trying to keep a secret, either."

A loud, static screech filled the room, and Bradford instinctively shoved Dr. Shen down to keep him out of harm's way while he tried to figure out what was going on. The noise was extremely disorienting, especially since the Central Officer couldn't figure out what direction it came from. Seconds later, his earpiece erupted with panicked chatter.

" _What the fuck was that?!"_

" _Power systems are normal. I swear that shit wasn't us."_

" _Townsfolk are freaking out. We might have a Grimm situation on our hands."_

" _Fuuuuuucking hell, we did not need that B-list horror jump scare down here in the machine shop. Gonna need a medic or two to help with the injuries."_

"Are you alright, Doctor?" Bradford asked as he pulled Shen back to his feet.

The elderly engineer nodded and scanned his system layout for any changes. Something caught his eye, and he keyed his mic. "Samuelson, I'm seeing a large energy surge saturating the HF band on our receivers. Please acknowledge and verify."

" _Acknowledged, Doctor. Our equipment is functioning properly, and it just lit up like a Christmas tree over here. I'm still working to parse the information and figure out where it came from._ "

Samuelson didn't need to find out the source of the transmission. Within moments, every screen on the bridge flashed on and displayed the face of a black-haired, sultry-eyed woman.

" _People of Remnant. I stand before you on the blood and ashes of countless brave individuals who worked in the face of immense danger to regain what was lost and bring you the gift of the CCTS once more. Many fell in the struggle to repair the tower at Beacon, but as you can see, their work was not in vain. It is my duty to be the first to invite you all to honor their ultimate sacrifice, and to introduce myself to you as the world's Fall Maiden, Cinder._ "

"That's not the Fall Maiden." Bradford said, his eyes glued to the screen.

"How do you know?"

"Because I saw Amber with my own two eyes." The Central Officer answered, "And because I've been briefed on the tower fight that took Nikos out of commission."

" _The maidens are real, I can assure you. I didn't believe in the tale myself until recently, when a close friend of mine tragically lost her life during the Vytal Catastrophe, and her power was transferred to the last person she thought of as she took her final breath… me._ "

Bradford gritted his teeth, and he could feel himself shaking as he watched this impostor speak her lies to the world. "Her power was stolen more like. What kind of game is she playing at?"

"Geopolitics, I would assume." Shen commented.

" _It is with a heavy heart that I take up the mantle of my dear friend and work to bring about a better future for the people of Remnant, but I am determined to do her memory justice and fight for the dream of safety and happiness that we all deserve. Repairing the CCTS is my first act as the new Fall Maiden, and I promise you that it will not be my last._

" _But nobody can change the world alone. My accomplishment tonight would not have been possible without the bravery of those who share my vision, who are inspired by my will for positive change. These are the true heroes that Remnant deserve, and I am more than happy to be a symbol, a conduit of their drive to push back against the darkness and claim this world for the people._ "

The shaking, Bradford realized, was not actually coming from the adrenaline flooding his body. As the woman's speech continued, the bridge itself started to vibrate. Shen's tools quietly clattered on the table, and the two men looked at each other with confusion and concern. Could this be sabotage?

Bradford's commlink lit up, and he could barely hear Vahlen's voice over the screams of ' _YOU BITCH. YOU FUCKING LYING BITCH_ ' in the background. " _All ship personnel: be advised that Sergeant Nikos is the source of the tremors you might be experiencing. I am working to sedate her, but this broadcast has put her in a state of… considerable distress._ "

Cinder continued, " _For_ all _the people; it is not just men who are willing to follow my path, but women and faunus of all fur and stripes. They all shouldered the burdens of our work equally in the time since the fall of Beacon, and while I am fully aware of the… societal issues that exist between the people of our world, I believe that everyone deserves the opportunity to join a movement as powerful, as noble as the one I envision. Whether you come from the aristocracy of Atlas or you found a sense of camaraderie with the White Fang, any who wish to set aside their differences and leave their past behind to cooperate for a better tomorrow will find a seat waiting for them at the Table of Brotherhood._ "

"Geopolitics it is." Bradford agreed. And he had to acknowledge the ingenuity of her opening play. Finding a way to restore the CCTS? The people of Remnant had spent the last month and a half completely cut off from the outside world, and now they get to thank this woman for bringing back the flow of information? Even if she takes a political hit for accepting faunus among her allies, the miracle of getting Vale's tower back on line more than makes up for it. And Bradford was certain that the faunus themselves would no doubt be lining up to fight alongside a savior that accepts them with open arms.

If this woman had an agenda (and Bradford believed wholeheartedly that she did), Remnant was in serious trouble.

" _We are on the cusp of a new era, the_ ADVENT _of a tomorrow that none of us thought possible. And I desire nothing more than to share it with all of you. Even now, my envoys and agents of change have been hard at work across the globe, unseen, unheard, and unappreciated while the CCTS left us all in darkness. And yet, the promise of a safer life is the only thanks my people truly need. And now that the Kingdoms are once again able to coordinate and cooperate with one another, it is my hope that their efforts will be bolstered by any and all inspired to share in our vision._ "

The tremors subsided, so Bradford could only assume Vahlen managed to calm Pyrrha down.

"Agents of change?" Shen mused, "That doesn't sound ominous at all."

"And yet she makes it sound like a good thing." Bradford said, "Sounds like our own covert operatives are going to have their work cut out for them.

" _There are those, however, who do not share in my dream for a brighter future. Sinister forces who will resist progress by any means necessary to keep themselves propped up in their undeserving seats of power. The Order of the Huntsman, whether knowingly or not, are mere puppets to this dark cabal as it uses the threat of the Grimm to keep the world in fear. They claim that they and they alone can keep you safe, and that you must put your security in their hands if you wish to live. And while they extend one hand so that you may feel the illusion of comfort under their 'protection,' they carry a dagger in the other, and won't hesitate to plunge it into your back the moment they fear you will turn on them. They forced the maidens to hide away from the world, to shirk their responsibilities to the people and wasting their potential as forces of good._ "

Bradford groaned once the pieces all came together, "She's trying to destabilize the only true security Remnant has against the Grimm so that she can slide right into that power vacuum."

"Does she have the numbers to pull it off?" Shen asked, "There is a lot of kingdom border that needs protecting."

"If she didn't before, she probably will soon."

" _But that's not all. The Vytal Catastrophe is just the latest in a line of horrific incidents that can be traced back to these monsters. Dear, sweet Ozpin the Wise, who claimed to want nothing more than to teach young, impressionable students the way of the Huntsman in order to keep the people 'safe,' has a far more nefarious agenda than anyone could have known._ "

"I don't like where this is going…"

Cinder's face faded to black, and the video screen was replaced by a new cinematic: lines and lines of scrolling code. Bradford's feeling grew worse when he heard Vahlen on the comms again.

" _Oh no. I think I know what she's doing. Remember when I told you about that repository of files I found on Amity?_ "

… And how there was one named XCOM.

Fuck.

Sure enough, the scrolling slowed down and finally stopped, highlighting a single, four-letter program.

" _There is a new, paramilitary group that calls itself XCOM. A rebranding of a branch of the Valean military that nobody knew about except, apparently, for Ozpin. They claim to come in peace, they claim to want to help those in need, and they claim to want a brighter future for Remnant, just as I do. But I ask you: in what world is the sabotage of the Amity Colosseum, the physical embodiment of inter-kingdom cooperation and an eighty-year peace… in what world could that be considered a 'brighter future?' "_

" _Boss? This is Beags. The, uh… the locals are giving us some funny looks. We've got some explaining to do when this shit's over._ "

"Because of course." Bradford sighed.

" _I will leave it to you, the people of Remnant, to decide what Ozpin and XCOM could possibly have to gain by committing such a heinous act. But I will tell you right here, right now: I will not take this abuse lying down, and neither should you. There will always be struggle and sacrifice in the fight for good, and XCOM is just one more roadblock on that brighter dawn. I will fight against their corruption, with my very life if need be, but remember: I cannot do it alone._

" _And so I beg my fellow maidens, my sisters… join me in strengthening the unity and resolution of my cause - of_ our _cause. We can work hand-in-hand to defeat the Grimm, to defeat XCOM, and give the people of Remnant the legacy they deserve. And to all of you, listening to my plea: everyone has the power to bring about change, to fight for the future you believe in. Those who choose to use that power here today will be forever remembered as the visionaries of our revolution. Your children, and your children's children, will look up to you with pride and admiration, knowing that you made the noble choice of fighting for what you believed in. I want nothing more than to stand at your side as you fight for that brighter tomorrow._ "

The sound turned off, the screens went black, and Bradford stood in silence with Shen as they took a moment to process what had just happened.

Shen spoke first. "Sounds like we're in for a different kind of war."

"Yeah." Bradford agreed, "And it's not going to be pretty."

* * *

A/N: If you thought that I'd denied Cinder her Vytal-disaster-gloating-speech just for funsies, you clearly don't understand the addiction I have to dramatic speeches.

One thing that came up recently is the point that XCOM: RWBY Within's Blake is still technically an orphan, on account of her memory of when she almost died at the hands of some bullies in Vale. At the same time, XCOM: Remnant Unknown's Blake definitely has parents, as she mentions her father to Adam just before he dies. Because Papadonna is easily one of my favorite new additions to the cast, I'm going to go ahead and retcon RWBY Within to make Blake not an orphan.

In slightly different news, I've been talking with a reader over the last week, and the suggestion of starting a Discord channel came up. My first reaction was, "I have no idea if this is a good idea or a horrible one." My second reaction was, "Fuck it, why not." I updated my profile bio with a link to the channel a few minutes before I posted this. In the past, I've noticed that profile updates take a while to get published, so you might not see the link before you've read this far down. It'll show up eventually, and I'll do my best to check the channel regularly and chat with anyone who takes the time to swing by and say hi.


	29. Tactical Analysis

A/N: Holy shit, I'm pretty sure this is the largest chapter I've ever written. I had a lot I wanted to write, I guess.

I ran Weiss's arc by a couple of people before posting it, and the general consensus of the first draft was that it needed some work. I've since revised it, but I think I'm most interested in critique with respect to that sub-plot over the rest. It's important that I do a good job with Weiss, I think, since it's one of the more serious stories unfolding so far.

* * *

Desperado raised his hands as two huntsmen students leveled their weapons at him and the other two operatives standing at his side while the other half of BRNZ looked uncertain.

"Guys, I get the suspicion. I really do, but-"

"Shut up." Brawnz growled, "You're only alive right now because you haven't stabbed us in the back _yet_ , but that only lasts for as long as I get some good answers on the shit we just watched."

"Have we not been giving you good answers for the past month?" The operative argued, "You took a chance on us because we've been open with you. How much of what you saw was new to you?"

Desperado knew he had to be careful with how much he pushed his luck. He felt like he'd made some good headway in forging a working relationship with these kids, but it didn't take a covert agent to recognize that Cinder's announcement had left the huntsmen rattled, and those saw blades aimed in his direction looked uncomfortably sharp.

"You could explain the hacking, for one thing." May said. Despite the sharpness of her words, Desperado could see that she didn't fully believe the broadcast's message. May's rifle hung loosely at her side, and she looked at the operatives, almost as if she were pleading for them to prove their innocence.

"The part where they flashed lines of code on the screen without showing how it's in any way linked to Amity?" One of Desperado's colleagues asked, "That was a scare tactic, plain and simple. I lost some good friends trying to save innocents from dying in that crash. We're the good guys, May, and we paid the price in blood to prove it."

"What do you call the lives lost in the effort to restore the CCTS?" Roy countered, "Is their 'blood price' not proof of their valor?"

Tense silence ensued when the operatives didn't have an answer for that one. Desperado wracked his brain for a way out of this mess. He knew he had to choose his words carefully, but he couldn't take too long finding the right ones.

"So what do you intend to do?" He asked, his voice lowered in an effort to bring the emotions back to a more comfortable level, "You've seen us in action. Not once have _we_ done anything that would indicate we are here for nefarious reasons. The entire time you've hosted us here in Vacuo, you've watched us work to find answers to the questions raised at Vytal. Am I wrong?"

"… No." Brawnz admitted.

Desperado slowly lowered his arms, but made sure to keep them in clear view of the huntsmen as he continued to talk.

"At the same time, we all respect your right to be suspicious. A lot of cloak and dagger shit went on during our fight against EXALT, and we've been on your end of this situation more than once. It's not easy, I know, and I doubt it's something you've been trained for. After all, Grimm don't really do the whole spy thing, do they?

"So I know you're not sure if we're here to do the right thing, and I'm guessing you're confused about what the right thing even _is_ at this point, but I think we can at least agree on one thing: Remnant needs good people right now. If you are concerned about XCOM's motives, then you can certainly be a force for good on your own. It looks like Cinder threw in a few digs at your reputation as huntsmen, anyway, so I'd say you guys could use the good publicity. Shit, publicly denounce us if that's what it takes to keep suspicion off of you. But regardless of what you do, we intend to keep doing the right thing the only way we know how. And if it's time for us to part ways, then so be it. But we will not stop searching for the truth." Desperado took a deep breath and looked Brawnz square in the eye, "Even if it kills us."

The two leaders held their gaze for a long time before Brawnz drew out a long sigh and lowered his weapon. "Shit…"

"We could hook them up with the nomads." May suggested, casting a glance at her leader, "I've spent some time with them before, and they _definitely_ don't give a shit about politics. It would be a good way to keep these guys under the radar without putting ourselves at risk."

Desperado shrugged. "Works for us. We're ready to go anytime you are."

Brawnz nodded at May, and the sniper shouldered her weapon and looked back at the operatives. "Then let's get going. The nomads aren't easy to find, and roaming the desert during the day _sucks_. Might as well start while it's dark out."

* * *

Silence fell over the room as the screen went dark. It only took a few minutes for news operators from the various kingdoms to start firing up their broadcasting services as they jockeyed to be the first to cover the bombshell of a news story that just dropped, but nobody in Sage's small apartment felt like listening to that. Sun got up and slowly walked towards the television to turn it off while the other three members of SSSN stared at the agents sitting in the room with them.

Once the screen grew quiet again, Neptune started to address the Goliath in the room. "Sooooooo… that was a thing."

"That was a thing that definitely just happened." One of the operatives, Jansen, agreed.

"What do we want to do about it?" Sun asked.

Jansen sighed and rubbed his eyes, "Depends on how you four feel about us in light of the last five minutes."

"Seriously?" Scarlet said, incredulous, "You think some floozy says some fancy shit over the CCTS, and that somehow undoes all of our cooperation and hard work for the last month and a half?"

Sage nodded in agreement with his partner, "Why would we take her word over yours? Especially since you were already upfront with what XCOM's all about. She may have restored the CCTS -or taken credit for it, at least- but you guys were the ones saving lives when shit hit the fan."

"Damage is already done, though. Regardless of the truth, Ironwood is almost certainly going to have some choice words for XCOM after this shit." Jansen said.

"Then it's a good thing you're on a different continent." Neptune quipped. He stood up and hefted his weapon over his shoulder and looked at the rest of his companions, "C'mon. I was looking forward to a night in, but thanks to Cinder, it looks like we've got a lot of recon to do. Let's get to it."

* * *

 _Shit. Shit shit, fucking shit._

"Well, Weiss?" Jacques prodded as he glanced over at his daughter staring at the two bound men from across the room, "Is there anything you'd like to say to me? I was thinking something along the lines of 'Thank you Father for having the foresight to keep tabs on me. I had no idea that I've been working with criminals for the past month.' That might be a good place to start."

"I…" Weiss faltered. How was she going to play this? How _could_ she play this? Her mind raced for solutions, and none of them ended with the two men walking out of here alive. She couldn't even acknowledge that she knew their names, Eshragi and Conrad, without making herself look even worse in her father's eyes. The fact that Jacques had decided to summon Weiss's younger brother (no doubt to embarrass her) didn't make the problem any easier.

"What's the matter, sister?" Whitley asked in the faux friendly tone he always reserved for her, "Doesn't father deserve some recognition for his actions?"

 _They don't know._ Weiss reminded herself, _All they have to go on is Cinder's claim. They don't know what XCOM really is, and I don't trust them enough to tell them._

"Or maybe…" Whitley continued, tapping a contemplative finger to his chin, "Just maybe, you sympathize with these terrorists?"

Before Weiss could recover enough of her composure to say something, their father offered a harsh (and uncharacteristic) rebuke for her. "Mind your tongue, and remember that you _are_ talking to your sister."

To Weiss's surprise, Eshragi spoke up. "If it makes you feel better, you ungrateful little shit, the bitch never liked us to begin with."

Weiss choked on her breath while one of the guards slammed the butt of his rifle into the operative's gut.

"How _dare_ you speak to a Schnee in that tone." the guard hissed.

"It's true." The other operative added, "Only reason she even deigned to work with us was because she thought we could get results that would help the SDC. 'Work faster, my family has a legacy to consider, and you're not getting me the results I need!' "

Weiss, dumbfounded, watched as the soldier spit on the floor and stared her in the eye, "What about all the innocent lives at stake, Ice Queen? Does anything aside from money matter to you?"

Weiss finally figured out what they were playing at. In the heat of the moment, desperate to maintain the charade, words tumbled unbidden out of her mouth, "I'm sorry, since when did doing the right thing turn a profit?"

Fuck. Fucking fuckity fuck. She was really doing this, wasn't she? Why was she doing this and not making a break for it with her friends? She vaguely remembered them telling her when they first arrived in Atlas that the mission came first and their lives came second, but this wasn't right. Fuck the mission. Fuck it to hell.

What had she done?

"Guards, I want these men executed for their actions, and for insulting the honor of my house and my daughter." Jacques ordered, his voice low and dangerous.

Wait… what?

Too late now. The guards shared a look that Weiss knew all-too-well. The "there is no way this is legal, but the idea of arguing a direct order from Mr. Schnee is even more terrifying" look. Before their hesitation lasted long enough to warrant punishment, they yanked the captives into a standing position and started to roughly march them out of the room.

The realization that she had just sentenced these men to death was still suffocating Weiss's thoughts when one of them shouted over his shoulder, "So that's it, huh? Gonna hide behind daddy's legs like a coward? Too afraid to get your hands dirty? Fuckin' knew you couldn't do your own shit, even if your life depended on it."

The second pin dropped, and Weiss's heart skipped a beat. She knew what Conrad was getting at, and the idea horrified her. But… they were committed now, weren't they? The Long War had hardened her into something far more mature than the stuck-up heiress that first stepped foot in Vale. She knew she could do this. But did she want to?

"Guards." Weiss commanded, barely suppressing a stutter, and the procession halted. Weiss moved across the room with all the grace she could muster (even if she felt none of it) as she continued to speak, "It would appear that these men are unwilling to give my family the respect that it deserves, and it would appear that they especially don't appreciate everything I've done to become worthy of my father's name."

She stopped ten paces away, brandished Myrtenaster, and cast the harshest glare she could summon at the two men. "I want these criminals, these _traitors_ , in the garden plaza ten minutes from now. They will learn what it means to be a Schnee in the short time that is left in their miserable lives."

The corner of Conrad's mouth twitched ever-so-slightly as the guards resumed shoving their prisoners back towards the door. Just before they reached the exit, Weiss gave one more order, as if it were an afterthought.

"Make sure they're armed. Wouldn't want them to think that I'm still trying to give myself a handicap, would we?"

* * *

"The fuck was that shit?" Junior asked as his monitor went dark and he turned to look at the two operatives standing on the other side of his desk. They were in the middle of delivering their latest intel report when that crazy bitch showed up on what was apparently every network-connected screen in the world and threw a monkey wrench into Junior's plans. Or perhaps a pipe wrench would be more accurate.

"Your guess is as good as mine." The man, Omerta, said. "I have no idea what she was going on about with the whole Amity hacking thing. There _was_ a virus in the station's system that caused the colosseum shields and gravity crystal to fail, but our science team was working to slow it down, not help it."

Junior raised an eyebrow. "And why should I believe that?"

"Have we ever lied to you?" Omerta countered.

No, and Junior had looked over everything the operatives reported on with a fine-tooth comb to try and catch them in a lie. They must have known going into this that trust would be their top priority (second only to "doing whatever Junior says," of course), because Hei failed to find a single instance of them not being completely forthcoming with any and all information they gathered.

"You're lucky that you're as good as Bradford promised." Junior sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose, "Or I might be less willing to give you the benefit of the doubt."

"Probably helps that you've got the Twins permanently assigned to working with us. We'd be dead in seconds if we tried anything funny." The other operative, Ochoa, quipped, "Not that we blame you for being concerned, though."

Ochoa had a point. Sure, Cinder's claim about XCOM's nefarious goals had made Hei a bit concerned about whether or not Bradford had an ulterior motive in planting two of his operatives inside a criminal organization. Gaining a solid foothold in Vale's crime scene with a well-timed coup seemed almost too predictable, but nothing in the time since their arrival gave Hei any reason to believe that his new recruits were still working for their old boss. Junior deliberately had them away on some mission or another every time Bradford came by to do some business, they were swept for bugs or unapproved communication devices on a daily basis, and yes, Miltia and Melanie had basically become their handlers on ops. The combination worked well, fortunately: Omerta and Ochoa were prodigies at recon, and they frequently made use of the Malachites. Usually that meant clearing out Grimm that stood in their way (stab wounds tended to draw less attention than gunshots), though sometimes they got the opportunity to turn on their charm and distract a guard or tease some information out of a weak-willed city official.

So while it made sense to be concerned about Omerta and Ochoa, and where their loyalties lie, Junior had no intention of giving up two of his best assets simply because some crazy lady showed up on a screen and called them bad.

"Take it easy for a few days." Junior decided, standing up and looking out the window of his office and down on his establishment's main room, "Keep a low profile at the club, enjoy the amenities… then I want you heading out to the Agricultural District to follow up on this lead you found about the drug lord operating out of that area. As always, the Twins will have full authority to handle the situation as they see fit. They've worked with me long enough to know what's best for the business."

The operatives saluted and left without a word.

* * *

Bradford quietly watched and waited as more of Patch's townsfolk filed into the community's central courtyard. It looked fairly large when Ruby and Yang had taken Bradford on a tour of their hometown when the Avenger first landed on the island, but now the Central Officer wondered if it would be large enough to fit all the people coming to listen to XCOM defend itself against Cinder's accusations. Some of them looked confused, others angry or betrayed. Quite a few people didn't seem to care one way or another, and Bradford wondered if they were showing up simply because they wanted to see history in the making.

A decent number of familiar faces also joined the crowds in the plaza, and the Central Officer felt a little better about his chances when he remembered that he had quite a few local allies in attendance. Taiyang was something of a local hero, the quiet huntsman who lives on the edge of town and keeps the Grimm at bay. Even though Cinder had warned against the huntsmen, one warning would not be able to undo the years of blood, sweat, and dedication that Taiyang had put into Patch. Several members of the town's council also looked on with favorable expressions. Bradford had made the choice to confide in them the nature of XCOM in the hopes that they might be more willing to support his cause once they knew the truth about the situation. They would hopefully uphold the agreement to keep things secretive (for now), but perhaps they could try to guide the upcoming conversation in a direction that would help XCOM maintain the support of the people.

Dr. Shen and his daughter sat next to Bradford. While they, too, were XCOM, Lily's work in Patch had been more personal with the people. At her father's suggestion, she had taken it upon herself to practice her craftsmanship by meeting with the locals and trying to help them with their mechanical problems. Her project to develop a proximity warning system came about when several farmers complained that Taiyang had been available less often lately to perform his usual sweeps around the town and chase off any encroaching Grimm. Beyond that, she'd spend a lot of her 'work' days fixing hardware, repairing structures, and tinkering with electronics. Put simply, she represented the good of XCOM in the eyes of Patch, the girl with a glue gun who was always happy to lend a hand to anyone who asked. Bradford hoped that having her here would serve as a reminder that his organization was more than just soldiers who had a knack for shooting things.

The town elder stood up on Bradford's left and cleared his throat, and the plaza grew silent in an instant.

"It pleases me to see that we are able to remain civil, even in such… concerning circumstances." The man said with a gentle smile, "Although I still see a few more people trickling in, I think it would be best if we get started. The sooner we come to a consensus regarding matters at hand, the better."

"I think the sooner they leave, the better!" Someone shouted from the crowd, "Maybe they've been good to us, maybe it was just for show. I don't want no trouble, and if that lady really is what she says, then they'll be trouble."

"To hell with that!" Another voice shouted, "More work's been done around here in the last month than I've seen all year. These are good people, and some tart who claims to have fairy powers doesn't change anything!"

A rising murmur of conflicting voices and opinions rose like the tide as more people tried to add in their two cents. The crowd fell silent once the town elder held up his hand to restore order to the courtyard.

"Your concerns deserve to be addressed. We also owe it to our guests to give them the opportunity to defend themselves in the wake of this Cinder's accusations. Please give Central Officer Bradford your respectful attention, and he will repay your civility by answering your questions once he is finished." The man turned to Bradford, who nodded and took his cue to stand up and address the people of Patch.

"There is a fair amount of truth to what Cinder told you: XCOM is indeed a paramilitary group, and she is correct to say that we have revealed ourselves to only a few individuals, Ozpin among them. Given that you've seen what my teams can accomplish, and the technology that we use, it's hardly surprising that we prefer to keep ourselves out of the limelight unless absolutely necessary.

Deep breath. "Where she is wrong, however, is her insinuation that we do not have your best interests at heart. I lost a lot of good people during the Battle for Vale, all of whom I wish were standing with me here and now today. But they would sacrifice themselves again without a moment's hesitation if that's what it takes to do the right thing. I saw my operatives put themselves between innocents and a raging Beringel, helped them protect the thousands of people from Nevermore strikes as they desperately worked to evacuate the masses from Amity, and watched as they worked around the clock to secure and maintain a safe zone where countless people poured in who needed protection, shelter, and medical treatment." Bradford looked out over the silent plaza, "These are not the actions of a group putting up a facade of good will, but those of an organization willing to die in the line of duty so that others don't have to.

"I fully understand that this is a matter of my word against those of the woman who restored communication across the globe, but I don't intend to make you choose between words. Actions speak far louder after all, and it is on XCOM to show you, and the people of Remnant as a whole, that we are here with good -not ill- intentions."

No point in dragging his argument out longer than it needed to be. Not much more to say, anyway. The plaza was silent for a few moments before the first, and most obvious, question was asked.

"Why should we believe you?"

"There is nothing I can say or do at this moment to convince you that I am right and Cinder is wrong." Bradford acknowledged, "At the same time, the reverse is also true."

"But she brought the CCTS back online! That's gotta count for something, right?"

"And XCOM fought at the Battle of Vale, you idiot." Another person in the crowd shouted, "They've both done good things for the people."

"Nobody's an idiot for expressing their fears." Taiyang boomed from the side of the plaza. All eyes turned towards the local legend as he got up on a low planter wall to address the crowd, "We've stayed alive this long by getting our fears out into the open so that others could help us overcome them. Bottling those fears up, letting them fester and stew, that's what attracts the Grimm. In a time like this, where there's plenty of uncertainty and the threat of danger, we _need_ to lay out all our fears so we can work together to put them to rest." Taiyang locked eyes with Bradford, "Including our fear of XCOM."

Whispers ran through the crowd as the people digested Tai's words. Bradford could see a lot of people were comforted by their resident huntsman adding his two cents to the conversation. Still, a lot of furtive glances were cast towards the Central Officer, with a few glares thrown in here and there.

"Do you fear XCOM?" A young child asked, and the crowd fell silent again as they waited for Taiyang's answer.

Tai shook his head. "I don't, but that's because my two daughters trust XCOM, and that is more than enough for me."

"I don't fear them, either." The child answered, "Miss Shen is a nice lady, and she always helps my dad when he asks. If XCOM has people like her, then they must be nice, too."

Dr. Shen stood up, and Taiyang gestured towards the front of the plaza so that the Chief Engineer could command everyone's attention.

"My dear, thank you for the kind words." He started with a smile at the young girl, "While I hope that Mr. Xiao Long's trust in our organization helps to assuage many of your fears, it would be disrespectful of us to assume that is all you need, and to leave it at that. You have graciously hosted us in your corner of the world, allowed us to repair our ship in peace, and even provided us with supplies and support. Such kindness cannot go unpaid. XCOM will not put you in the awkward situation of having to choose between our word or Cinder's, for while we do not yet know if her motives are as honest as she claims, we hope with all of our heart that she will be a force of good on Remnant. Our repair work is almost done, and we plan to be on our way by tomorrow evening. It is our hope that you will come to see that what we say is true, and that we might return in the future and be greeted with the hospitality and kindness that you have extended to us over these past weeks."

"Some of us may be wary of XCOM in light of Cinder's claims," The town elder said, "But the work you and your daughter did for Patch is undeniable. I think I speak for all of us when I say that it's been nothing short of a pleasure having you here, Dr. Shen."

A murmur of agreement echoed from the crowd. Even if they couldn't agree on whether or not XCOM would be bad news in the long run, nobody would dare speak ill of the Shens or their engineering teams. The Chief Engineer bowed his head in respectful acknowledgment of the town's gratitude. "I've only known Miss Rose and Miss Xiao Long for a short while, but it was quickly apparent that they had an excellent upbringing. While I originally thought that their father was solely responsible for raising such excellent children, it's obvious to see that they grew up in an equally wonderful community. If Patch is ever in serious need of help, XCOM will do whatever it can to help. It is the least that we can do."

After Dr. Shen sat back down, the plaza became quiet. The town elder took his cue to wrap the meeting up when it seemed like nobody had anything left to say.

"Thank you all for taking the time to attend. We certainly live in interesting times, and I think it is important for us to look out for each other whenever possible. That includes making sure everyone feels safe and that their voice is properly heard. If anyone has further questions for our guests before they leave, please let me know and I will see to it that Bradford or one of his associates makes time to meet with you and answer your concerns personally. For now, I think it's best if we all get back to work."

Bradford breathed a sigh of relief as he people of Patch filter out of the plaza. The elder walked up to him and put a hand on his shoulder. "I appreciate your willingness to do this. You know that I personally have no concerns with XCOM, and I fully believe that your intentions are honorable, but it's important that the citizens feel their voices are heard."

A solitary voice cut through the rumblings of the crowd. "I'm coming with you."

Bradford and the elder glanced into the crowd, which parted slightly to reveal a young man staring back at the Central Officer. His eyes looked nervous, and the slight shaking of his hands betrayed his fear, but those hands clenched into fists and the man repeated his assertion. "I'm coming with you."

The crowd stopped its slow dispersion, and someone called out, "You can't be serious."

"I am!" The man shouted back, "XCOM helped us, and they are promising to help Remnant. I want to return the favor."

"Your hospitality has been more help than I think you realize." Bradford said, "You don't have to do this."

The man nodded. "I know I don't. But it's the right thing to do."

"I'd… I'd like to come, too."

A woman timidly stepped up next to the man, and looked up at Bradford, "I've spent some time helping gather medical supplies for Doctor Vahlen, a-and she's said that she's short on medical staff. I'm… pretty good with my hands. Cinder said to fight for the future we believe in, and… and I want to make a difference."

"Shit, I'm handy with a tool. Think you guys have room for a guy like me in that fancy machine shop you've got?"

Dr. Shen raised a hand to stop the momentum that was clearly building. His eyes shone with silent pride. "We would be happy to have you, but bear in mind that your community relies on your skills as well. If you truly wish to join us, speak about it in private with your council. Let them help you decide."

"And if we are still determined?" The man asked.

Bradford smiled. "Then who are we to say no?"

* * *

The knock on the door barely registered for Weiss out of her thoughts, and she didn't have the energy to play host for whoever felt like talking at her.

Not even Klein.

 _Knock knock._

Despite the fact that she distinctly did not give permission for anyone to enter, the door opened and Weiss glanced up to see her sister walk in. Rather than say anything, such as 'Hello, sister' or 'Get out of my room,' Weiss simply resumed examining her nails to make sure she didn't miss any flecks of blood.

To her credit, Winter patiently waited for an admirably long time for Weiss to acknowledge her beyond the initial glance. However, Weiss really wasn't in the mood to explain to Winter what had happened, and she was equally unwilling to waste breath telling her to leave. So her sister would have to settle for uncomfortable silence before getting the hint.

"Are you alright?"

Or perhaps sister dearest was intent on ignoring the hint. Perhaps a vacant-yet-incredulous look was in order, given the idiotic obviousness of the answer. Did Father put her up to this? If that were the case, Weiss probably should be giving an ice-cold answer along the lines of 'Of course I am. Those rats hardly scratched me before I put them down.' But at this point, she really didn't feel like playing their family's usual game of political bullshit.

"Weiss."

Nope. No way was she dealing with this right now.

"Weiss," Winter repeated.

"Do I look okay?" Weiss hadn't meant for it to come out as a whisper, but... there it was.

Winter sighed and sat down next to her sister on the edge of the bed. "The organization that you've spent the last two months working with has been branded as a group of terrorists. You and I both know that this couldn't be further from the truth, but only the people who were actually in the thick of combat with XCOM would recognize that, and they're not about to speak up against the hero of the hour responsible for the restoration of the CCTS. And then I hear that Father caught two of them, brought them here, and practically forced you to denounce them as traitors in front of him. And he brought Whitley along to gloat and rub your face in it."

"So no." Winter finished, "No, you don't look okay."

Weiss's eyes widened slightly when she realized her sister stopped her list at the capture of the operatives. She had no idea, did she?

And suddenly, the memories came flooding back.

* * *

Somehow, Weiss managed to convince her father to let her speak with the operatives one last time before the guards let them out of the mobile cells to begin the game of Cat and Mouse in the garden. 'To try and make them see the error of their ways before they die,' or some equally bullshit drivel. She walked with all the haughty poise and grace expected of her as she crossed the courtyard towards where the prisoners waited in their cells.

Once she reached them and was out of sight from prying eyes, the facade vanished and she looked imploringly at her two friends.

"You don't have to do this." She said, "We could make a break for it the moment they let you out."

Eshragi returned Weiss's plea with a wistful smile, "And ruin your connection with the SDC? That is a huge advantage that we can't afford to lose, and you know it."

" _You're_ a huge advantage that we can't afford to lose!" Weiss argued.

"Shruggie's right." Conrad said, "Your family's influence will get you into a lot of places. Places with answers. But you need to play the part of the loyal daughter."

"We got careless, Elsa. This is simply our atonement." Eshragi leaned back in his cell and closed his eyes, "But even in death we can still be of use."

Weiss wasn't giving up, though. If they had to die, at least they could make it painless. "I know you have those pills. We can put on an act for my father, and you can chomp at the last second to make it quick."

Conrad gave Weiss a look. "C'mon kid, we know how your semblance works. It's gotta be you, and we gotta go down swinging."

"I just… don't know if I can do it." Weiss said, looking away. Killing aliens and Grimm, monsters that were trying to kill her unless she killed them first… that was easy. Killing her friends?

How?

"You can." Eshragi said, his smile warm now, "Because you are stronger than you realize. You're XCOM, after all."

Conrad grinned. "What was ol' Vance's favorite saying? 'We do what we must, because we must.' It's gonna hurt like hell, but you'll pull through."

"And we'll be right beside you. Every step of the way."

A tear rolled down Weiss's cheek. "I'm so sorry… I… I failed you both."

"Nonsense." Eshragi dismissed, "You are the best of us. And it will be an honor to serve as your bodyguard until you join us many, many years from now. Whatever you may think, and whatever happens, know this: I am proud of you."

Never in a million years would those words be anywhere as meaningful if they came from her wretched excuse for a father than they did coming out of Eshragi's mouth.

"Now go." The man said, "Before your father comes to see what's taking so long. It's time for you to do us one last favor. And then your work begins in earnest."

Weiss stepped away from the cells, her eyes locked onto her friends for a few more, selfish seconds. "I'll make it quick. I promise."

And with that, she spun around and strode away. She wasn't sure if she'd ever forgive herself for what she was about to do, but at least she wouldn't have to wonder how her friends felt in their final moments.

She'd never seen someone be so at peace with their death.

* * *

Winter must have seen something on Weiss's face (or perhaps on her nails?), or she pieced together that the bedroom had become so steamy because of the long shower Weiss had taken. Or maybe she finally realized that their father was evil enough to condemn two men to death without losing a wink of sleep over the decision. Whatever it was, Weiss could practically feel her sister's emotions plummet when it dawned on her what Weiss did.

"No…"

The silence between them stretched on for several minutes as Winter struggled to find the right words while Weiss didn't much care about saying anything.

As the silence continued, Weiss wondered what was Winter's point in coming here. Clearly she didn't come on Father's behalf. Neither of them particularly liked their father, and Winter was always blunt and to-the-point whenever he asked her to deliver a message or request to Weiss. There was no way Winter would do him any favors by trying to tease secrets out of Weiss by feigning concern to get her guard down. Winter might have been more of a drill sergeant than a sister at times, but the camaraderie and trust between sisters was real. Still, there had to be more to it than checking in on her little sister.

"Weiss, I…" Winter paused, choosing her words carefully, "Would you like to get a drink with me? It's always helped me clear my head when I'm distracted by too many thoughts weighing on my mind, and I think it would be good for you, too."

Weiss blinked. Her sister took the effort to come in here, make an appeal to Weiss's emotions… to invite her out for drinks?

What the fuck?

* * *

Coco tossed her duffel on top of her footlocker in one of the ship's barracks. She'd stowed all of her own personal effects in the container back when the ship first landed on Patch; this bag was simply a cache of her recent fashion acquisitions and trinkets that she picked up during XCOM's stay on the island. Plus, the town had much more comfortable bedding compared to the stiff-yet-efficient offerings found on the ship. Coco was relieved to discover that the Avenger at least had enough crew quarters to fit everyone currently onboard without the need for sharing beds. As much as she cared for her teammates (her partner in particular), Coco did not want to think about the prospect of dropping her tired ass into a bed, ready for some much-needed beauty sleep, only to discover that it was still warm (and probably a little dirty) from its previous occupant. No, her bed would be clean and well-kept so long as Coco was willing to maintain it. Something she was more than happy to do.

In any case, having her own bed would make the night terrors a little less embarrassing. So she had that going for her.

The door to the barracks opened, and Coco looked up to see Arslan walk in with a bag of her own. The Mistrali huntress dropped the bag by her bed a few paces down from Coco before falling back onto her pillow with a small sigh.

"Something on your mind?" Coco asked.

Arslan grunted something that barely qualified as a 'No' before offering a more coherent response, "That could've gone better."

Coco glanced over her glasses with a look of surprise, "It could have also gone a lot worse. I was half-expecting them to drive us out with torches and pitchforks after Cinder's little stunt. XCOM _and_ huntsmen on the same ship? It's a miracle that the meeting was as civil as it was."

"Point taken."

"Do you know when we're getting out of here, though?" Coco asked, returning her attention to her bag. She'd begun to remove its contents so she could fold and stow the articles to avoid getting wrinkles in them, "I left early to dodge the crowds, so I missed the tail end of Bradford's powwow."

"Tomorrow, like Shen said during the town hall." Arslan answered, "Asked Bradford if he needed help. Said his engineers had it covered. Told me to catch some shuteye before the ship got…" Yawn, "Loud and busy."

"And the rest of your team?"

Silence followed Coco's question as she continued working on her laundry.

"Altan?"

A quick glance to her right revealed that Arslan had already passed out. Well, if there was still some downtime before Bradford had a need for the huntsmen teams, it looked like Coco had the opportunity to finish organizing her belongings. She could probably fit in some time for weapon maintenance (and personal maintenance… a shower sounded lovely) before waking up her fellow team leader and seeing how they could get the Avenger ready for its flight out of Patch.

Arslan had moxie, Coco had to admit. After chatting with a couple of the operatives, she'd learned that the kid had taken a serious shine to Major Durand and developed a drive to push herself (and her team) to their limit. Even after the rest of ABRN would take time off to rest and recuperate, Arslan would look for ways to make herself useful. Oftentimes, that meant sparring with Durand and teaching her the intricacies of Aura-enhanced hand-to-hand combat, but Arslan would find work even if Annette wasn't available. Maybe some time in the air would force Altan to take some R&R and help her realize that an exhausted leader was a useless one.

As time passed, other personnel filtered into the barracks and prepped for the long journey ahead. Everyone was considerate enough to keep the noise down so Arslan could sleep. Coco's own team also stopped by, though Yatsu could only stay for a few minutes since he promised to lend his considerable strength to help with final preparations. Coco chatted with Velvet for a bit while disassembling and cleaning her gun. She still felt a little uncomfortable thinking about all the destruction she'd caused with her baby, but time (and a few conversations with Apollo) had turned the sharp pain into a dull ache. Eventually, Coco had learned to use the pain as a means of treating her weapon with more respect than she once did, to understand that it had the potential to harm those she intended to help. Maybe it would be enough to get over her guilt, maybe it wouldn't, but at least Coco was able to pick up her gun again and pull the trigger without hearing the screams.

Eventually, the peaceful hours ran out, and Bradford's voice echoed over the comms, " _Officers, please report to the bridge._ "

Velvet gave her partner a thumbs up and left for her post in the armory while Coco shook Arslan awake.

"C'mon, kiddo." Coco commented as the other huntress's eyes fluttered open, "That's us."

The duo trekked to the bridge without a word between them, as Arslan was still clearly working on waking up. Operatives passed them by in the halls, equipment in hand as they walked with a purpose to some deck or another. Coco noticed a couple of new faces, too: the non-combatants from Patch that disagreed with the "Cinder good; XCOM bad" sentiment and wanted to lend their skills to a group that clearly had a plan for figuring out what the hell happened at the Vytal festival. Coco wasn't about to complain: the Avenger was a pretty big ship and could always use a larger crew.

They reached the bridge a few minutes later to see it buzzing with activity. Big Sky sat at the helm while the other XCOM pilots manned secondary flight stations. With Bradford's (amused) approval, Beagle had retained his role as Captain of the ship, and so he stood at his semi-circular array of consoles a few paces behind the pilots. Vahlen had a small table set up on one side of the room where she could work with Penny to monitor the ship's systems and communicate with Tygan down in the repair bay and Shen on the power deck. It looked like Coco and Arslan were the last officers to make it to the bridge, as the rest seemed to be standing at ease along the back wall, chatting amiably with each other while they waited for liftoff. Coco counted six XCOM officers (including Durand) as well as Ruby and Jaune from the other two huntsmen teams currently traveling with the Avenger.

Bradford himself had found some space for a station of his own by the door that Coco and Arslan walked through. Compared to Beagle's command consoles, Bradford apparently elected for more of a minimalist approach. Coco guessed that his personal quarters were more elaborate, but Bradford's corner of the bridge consisted of a single, small console, a plain-looking chair, and a little bit of desk space. The Central Officer looked up when he heard Coco and Arslan approach, and he offered them a greeting as they entered the Avenger's command hub.

"Once we find a way to get back to Earth, I need to show you guys an episode or two of Star Trek." The Central Officer mused, "Because the only thing missing here are the gold, blue, and red shirts."

Coco shrugged. "If you can pull off here what you did back on Earth, you can make me watch whatever you like. So where are we headed?"

"That's what I wanted to discuss with the rest of the officer corps. I've got a few ideas, but I'm open to alternatives if one of you has a better idea. C'mon."

Bradford waved at the gaggle of officers to get their attention, and the group followed him over to Beagle's command station. Bradford stood behind Beagle while the rest of the officers stepped around to the other side of the semi-circular desk.

"Alright, team. It would have been nice if we could stay an extra week to get this rig buttoned up all nice and neat, but we don't have that option anymore if we want to stay on good terms with the locals. Now we need to determine where we're going, set a course, and come in quietly to avoid drawing attention to ourselves. Our science team performed a sweep of the ship and determined there aren't any tracking bugs, so as long as we give standard traffic lanes a wide berth, we should be good to go. So while we have the 'how' pretty well in hand, we need to establish the 'where.' The obvious choice is Atlas in order to regain contact with Sergeant Schnee and her covert operatives. Atlas is already the most militant kingdom, and I'm sure Cinder's little stunt didn't do any favors for our team stationed there. Not only that, but they are the technological powerhouse on Remnant. The sooner they get in bed with Cinder, the worse it will be for us.

"Alternatively, we need a base of operations. Somewhere we can withdraw to if we need to lick our wounds and reassess the situation. I don't want to rely on Patch for that purpose, especially since Atlas knows that this was our first stop. We need somewhere remote where we can set up shop, and somewhere that can hide an Atlesian cruiser without much difficulty."

Mountain Glenn might be a good place for that. Coco would bring it up if Ruby didn't. Bradford continued, "Of course, those are just two options that came to my mind for a first jump. We'll need to be careful about where we go so we don't overextend ourselves too soon. If you have any input or suggestions on our course, now is the time."

"I think Menagerie would be a good place to start." Ruby suggested. Coco raised an eyebrow. Of all the possible destinations, Menagerie wasn't high on her list. "I talked it over with Blake. Menagerie's laws and governance are more lax than the kingdoms themselves, so we might have some leeway in not drawing attention to ourselves as we try to feel out what's going on. Also, we didn't deploy any covert operatives to the continent, so we don't have anyone trying to develop a local network, and we don't have anyone keeping an ear to the ground for signs of trouble."

Made sense, though the fact that the Avenger's crew only had a couple of faunus might make the whole 'blending in' thing a little difficult.

"Finally, Blake's parents are… uh… very well-respected on Menagerie. Her father used to be the leader, apparently. If we're looking for easy allies for XCOM, the Belladonnas would be a really good place to start."

Bradford nodded. "That's a pretty solid case for making Menagerie our first stop. Any objections?"

"XCOM's going to stick out like a sore thumb." Coco commented, "I've been to Menagerie once or twice -the beaches are excellent, by the way- and one thing I noticed about the culture there is the vibrant colors and comfortable clothing. Our resident huntsmen will be able to fit in pretty easily, but XCOM? Your attire is a bit dark, and that'll catch some attention."

Jaune raised his hand, "Well, we've been stockpiling some supplies during our runs to Vale, and that includes clothing. Maybe you could work with Blake and try to put together some outfits that will help us look like locals?"

Coco grinned. "It would be my pleasure."

"Got one more objection for you, boss." Big Sky called out from his place, "Looks like Volt's crew still has a few kinks to work out on our propulsion systems. Metrics are reading a pretty short flight range."

Beagle tapped his console, paused for a moment to analyze what it displayed, and nodded in confirmation with Big Sky's assessment. "I'm having Mac check on it now, but it looks like a power supply issue." He looked up and offered a shrug, "We hauled back a lot of Dust from Amity, but this thing's a big beastie. We might need to spend some time scrounging for more power."

"I don't think we'll want to be crossing any bodies of water until R&D can work with Recon to get this issue sorted out," Big Sky agreed.

"Shit…" Bradford sighed, "Looks like we'll be going with the first plan, then. Any suggestions for a local, out-of-the-way site where we can put down?"

"Mountain Glenn." Coco answered, "It's an abandoned, remote ruin of a city expansion project that went sideways before it could ever take off. Should be easy to hide in the ruins, and we might even find something useful while we're there."

"RWBY was dispatched to Mountain Glenn for our first mission." Ruby added, "It's got a sizable Grimm population, but I agree with Coco that it's a good choice. The White Fang set up shop there with Roman before the Breach Incident. There's a good chance there's still some stuff left behind."

"I think we should still dispatch an away team to start working contacts in Menagerie," Annette noted.

Bradford nodded. "Agreed. Captain Rose, talk with Belladonna and coordinate a SpecOps team she can take with her to connect with her parents. I know RWBY is already down a huntress, but I think we can agree that this is important enough to warrant another split."

"No argument here, sir."

"So it sounds like we've got a game plan, then." Bradford said, "Good. Beags, work with our navigators and Captain Rose to map out a course that will keep us out of visual contact with the air traffic lanes, and we can make plans to prep recon teams to scout for supplies once we touch down."

Beagle gave the Central Officer a salute and turned to one of the various consoles on his desk. "I gotta admit, these maps are pretty detailed for a civilization that doesn't have satellite imagery. It shouldn't be a problem for me and Firebrand to get a route plotted with the information I've got on-hand. Would be nice to eventually figure out a way to get intel on traffic lanes, though."

"We'll work on it." Bradford promised, "For now, are there any questions?"

Jaune raised his hand. "Just one, sir. It's been bugging me ever since this issue with Cinder started."

"Okay…" Bradford said warily, "Let's have it, Lieutenant."

"Why are so many people taking what Cinder's selling at face value? Pyrrha transmitted that speech about unity in the face of danger, about how huntsmen all across the globe are willing to stand shoulder-to-shoulder to keep the Grimm at bay… how can people possibly believe Cinder's claims that the huntsmen are plotting against them?"

What was the Arc kid talking about? Judging by the blank stares from the other officers, it looked like Coco wasn't the one taking crazy pills.

Bradford broke the silence first, sounding just as confused as Coco felt. "Jaune, what speech are you talking about?"

"What do you mean what speech?" Jaune almost snapped, "The one that we fought Cinder to transmit! The one that's left Pyrrha paralyzed, because we needed to hold out against that crazy bitch long enough to let the people know what's going on!"

Ruby tried her best to calm down her friend with a soothing voice, "Jaune… there's… we didn't hear any speech transmitted over the CCTS. I don't think it got out."

The contorted mixture of emotions growing on Jaune's face made it difficult to tell if he was going to scream, cry, or break something. Finally he muttered a, "Permission to-" before cutting himself off and making a quick exit out of the room. Ruby looked at Bradford, waited for the Central Officer to give her an affirmative nod, and followed Jaune.

"I should probably help Rose deal with that." Bradford sighed, "The rest of you are dismissed. Annette, I want you to work with Beagle to develop an active duty roster for dispatching strike teams. We're a bit… understaffed at the moment, so I need all operatives to take rotations as non-coms. We can sort out the logistics later. For now, I want all teams reporting to Vahlen, Shen, and Tygan for assignments to get this boat sailing when we're finally ready for launch. Get to it."

The officers snapped a salute, and the group dispersed from the command deck. Coco and Arslan walked back to their quarters and found their respective teams waiting for them when they arrived.

"Figured you'd have orders for us after your little officer meeting." Reese chirped, "So where are we headed? What exciting adventures are we going on first?"

"Some place called Mountain Glenn, then probably to Menagerie afterwards." Arslan answered, "Blake's parents have some pull there with the faunus, so it's a good place to start looking for allies after we set up a local base of operations."

Velvet let out a cheerful hum at the news. "I haven't been to Menagerie in a while. It'll be nice to go back again."

The two teams chatted about Menagerie for a bit while they readied their gear. Coco found out that ABRN had never been, which wasn't surprising since they didn't have any faunus teammates and no other real reason to go to the continent. There wasn't really much to tell about Mountain Glenn, so the Mistrali students were happy to listen to what Velvet had to say about Menagerie instead. Coco could see the interest in their eyes as her partner described the port's water markets, the lush jungles, and the diverse array of inhabitants. A brief, comfortable silence fell over the group after Velvet finished a long, enthusiastic story about the desert wildlife before Nadir took the conversation in a different direction.

"This is really happening, isn't it?" He asked, "We're really going up against one of the maidens, and all the people who are supporting her?"

"Gotta stop being a student and start being a huntsman at some point." Fox said. He'd been quiet for most of the conversation, preferring to let Coco and Velvet do the talking, but offering insight into fear of the unknown was something he had experience with.

"Yeah, but you have to admit this is pretty crazy, right?" Bolin asked, backing up his partner, "The four kingdoms are still recovering from the Vytal festival, these XCOM guys are being branded as criminals, and while we know that's not true, I bet there's a good chunk of the world that's going to take Cinder's word for it. We're the good guys, or at least we're supposed to be, but people're gonna assume that we started this whole mess in the first place."

"Which is why we have to make things right." Arslan said, "Whatever Cinder's got planned, I don't think it's good. Bradford clearly doesn't trust her, and it's pretty telling that she's introducing herself to the world with a message of division and distrust. XCOM saved one world from an all-out war, and I think they can do the same with ours."

Fox jerked a thumb in Arslan's direction while grinning at Nadir. "Your boss has the right idea. I really suggest you keep her."

The ship's comms crackled to life, and the cheerful sound of Beagle's voice filled the room.

" _Avast, me hearties. This is your Cap'n speakin' t'ye on our last evening before we cast off from our first port o' call._ "

Bradford's (slightly) annoyed voice shortly followed. " _Beags…_ "

"- _And as our helmsman plots us a course to new frontiers, I says to meself, 'Why Beagle… Ye've got yerself a ship. Ye've got yerself a crew. Looks to me like ye've become a pirate!"_

" _The List is still in full effect, Captain. Need I remind you that Rule 106-_ "

" _Rule 106 can go walk the plank!_ "

The two teams of huntsmen looked at one another, and it became clear that none of them had the faintest idea what Beagle was talking about. However, it had taken far less than a month for them to learn of his… interesting reputation, so the unfolding conversation didn't exactly surprise them.

" _At such a pivotal moment as this, at the cusp o' the true maiden voyage of the Avenger, the crew needs to get some fire in their blood as we make our final preparations! An' besides, we've got a couple o' landlubbers joinin' us, and I figures they could use a hearty welcome. Part o' the ship, part o' the crew._ "

" _PART O' THE SHIP, PART O' THE CREW._ " Coco jumped slightly at the volume of the chorus shouting back at Beagle.

" _Oh, for fuck's sake._ "

" _So I'll be turnin' the horn over to me first mate ta lead you all on what I expect ta be the first o' many sea shanties that ye'll be learnin' during yer stay on the good ship Avenger. These tunes be important fer a pirate crew, an' they'll make yer work a touch more enjoyable, I promise ye. Take 'er away, Mac._ "

" _Bradford?_ " Tygan asked.

" _Nope. You don't get an explanation, Doctor. Because there isn't one._ "

As the teams continued to stare at the speaker in the barracks, Velvet let out a quiet giggle. "I think I'm going to enjoy working with XCOM."

Tygan started to say something else, but MacAuley's voice drowned him out. " _ALRIGHT YE SCURVY SCALLYWAGS. Now I don't expect the fresh meat to know the words jus' yet, but ye better be takin' notes. Cap'n Beags runs a tight ship, an' an inspired crew be a hard workin' crew. Learn the shanties, live the shanties, an' ye better damn well work to the shanties. Now listen up. As ye may have noticed, I've taken the liberty of modifying the RX/TX-_ "

" _The AARRRRRRRR-EX, ye mean._ "

" _Yes, Cap'n. Thank ye. The comms have been modified to allow multiple inputs into the system to be relayed simultaneously. So yer all welcome -nay, ENCOURAGED- ta sing along as ye see fit. I'll also remind the veterans that if ye are caught shirking your honor-bound duty of leadin' the fresh meat in this important tradition, then there'll be floggin's until ye've learned yer lesson. Now here we go…_ "

"He said this was a working song, right?" Coco asked, standing up, "So we might as well get out there and pitch in. Or watch the show, at least."

The rest of the group got up and started for the door as MacAuley started his tune.

" _Now we are ready ta head fer the horn!_ "

Almost immediately, the operatives chorused back.

" _WEIGH, HEY, ROLL AN' GO._ "

" _Our boots and our clothes, boys, are all in th' pawn._ "

" _TO BE ROLLICKIN' RANDY DANDY O!_ "

Even though the comms drowned out just about everything else, Coco could already hear the voices of operatives down the hall shouting back at Mac as they recited their part of the song.

" _Heave a pawl, oh, heave away!_ "

" _WEIGH, HEY, ROLL AN' GO._ "

" _The anchor's on board an' the cable's all stored-_ "

" _TO BE ROLLICKIN' RANDY DANDY O!_ "

By now they could see operatives (or crewmen, Coco supposed) moving in time with the beat of the song, unpacking crates, tossing bundles of equipment to one another, running cables, and tying ropes.

"Catch!" One of the operatives called out, and Coco chuckled as Arslan found herself with a satchel in her arms.

" _Oh, man the stout caps'n and heave with a will._ "

" _WEIGH, HEY, ROLL AN' GO._ "

" _For soon we'll be drivin' her 'way up th' hill._ "

" _TO BE ROLLICKIN' RANDY DANDY O!_ "

"The boys in the machine shop could use those." The man explained, "The Shens are getting some gear for the flight deck rigged up to help keep our bullhead secure."

Several more bags of equipment were thrown at the huntsmen (three were chucked at Yatsuhashi alone), and the two teams started their purposeful march down to the engineering bay. The song continued, and Coco was surprised at how effective it was at getting everyone moving in a lively fashion. Operatives grinned and saluted the huntsmen as they passed, and the 'can do' atmosphere only further encouraged Coco to move with a purpose.

" _Heave away, bullies, ye parish-rigged bums!_ "

" _WEIGH, HEY, ROLL AN' GO._ "

" _Take yer hands from yer pockets, an' don't suck yer thumbs._ "

Without any prompting, the CFVY and ABRN belted out the chorus.

" _TO BE ROLLICKIN' RANDY DANDY O!_ "

"That's the spirit!" A passing operative called out.

The group skipped down the stairs, marched along the hall, and found themselves in the spacious and noisy machine shop that had become the residence of Dr. Shen. Even in here, among the noise of the machines and the pounding of hammer, the engineers and operatives could be heard cheerfully singing along at MacAuley's direction. Even some of the Patch volunteers who decided to make themselves useful with the mills and lathes were starting to get into the swing of the song.

" _We're outward bound for Vallipo Bay._ "

"WEIGH, HEY, ROLL AN' GO."

" _Get crackin' me lads, it's a hell of a way._ "

" _TO BE ROLLICKIN' RANDY DANDY O!_ "

Lily looked up from her worktable at the sound of the two teams singing along, and she waved them over with a smile. The huntsmen dropped their supplies at the foot of the workbench, and the young engineer wasted no time in rooting around in the sacks to see what goodies had been delivered to her.

" _Heave a pawl, oh, heave away._ "

" _WEIGH, HEY, ROLL AN' GO._ "

" _The anchor's on board an' the cables all stored._ "

" _TO BE ROLLICKIN' RANDY DANDY O!_ "

"Perfect…" Lily cooed as she set the wiring, tools, and hardware on the table, "Yatsu, could you help Nicho with the mill down on the end? He's machining the big stuff, and it's pretty heavy."

"Of course."

"Right, where do you need me?" Reese asked, looking around and cracking her knuckles. Coco had heard that the huntress was pretty handy, even spending some of her downtime over the last month in the machine shop. It made sense, given the technical complexity of her hoverboard, and the way Lily beamed told Coco that the two had spent more than a little time working together.

"Grind could use a hand. I'll be over in a little bit myself."

MacAuley's shanty started to wind down, as the chorus started draw out the syllables of each line.

" _Heave a pawl, oh, heave away._ "

" _WEIGH, HEY, ROLL AN' GO._ "

" _The anchor's on board an' the cables all stored._ "

" _TO BE ROLLICKIN' RANDY DANDY O!_ "

A single pair of clapping hands followed the end of the song, followed by Beagle's cheerful voice.

" _Well done, me hearties, well done I say! An' don't think I didn't hear ye singin' along, Central. I'll melt that cold heart of yers, even' if I need ta' enlist one o' th' MECS to lend me their flammenwerfer._ "

" _What's a flammenwerfer?_ "

" _Good question, crewman Rose! A flammenwerfer is a weapon that werfs flammen._ "

"What do you need the rest of us to do?" Coco asked.

Lily glanced back at the machines chugging away behind her, trying to assess the situation at a glance. "Shop's humming pretty good at the moment, so we could probably use you on the flight deck unless you really had your heart set on getting greasy with the machines." Coco raised an eyebrow and Lily sighed. "That… sounded better in my head. A-anyway, we've got some hardware that's ready to be moved up to the tarmac. The winds are making it a bit hazardous to work up there, but we've got a couple of Albatross pilots standing by to catch anyone who takes a tumble. And besides… you huntsmen have a way with mobility that's something else."

"Can't argue with that." Arslan quipped.

"I'll do a quick roundup run through the shop to get all the stuff that's ready for you." Lily said, standing up and putting her work gloves on.

Coco watched as the young girl disappeared into the shop. "Now there's a motivated kid if I've ever seen one. She probably would've made a good huntress if she was from around here."

"Probably." Velvet agreed, "But it's comforting to know she's got our back down here in the repair bay."

" _Aaaaaaaaalright, me hearties! That's enough of a break, I would say. After all, there's still plenty o' work ta be done, and plenty o' time ta do it._ "

" _Why, Beags._ "

* * *

Weiss glanced at her sister as the two of them stepped into the divey-looking bar. By now, she'd figured out that her sister didn't want to be overheard by prying ears in the manor (which only served to make Weiss even more curious as to what Winter wanted to say), but couldn't they find a nicer bar to have their conversation? Apparently not, and Weiss sighed as Winter stepped through the (slightly rotting) door without so much as a grimace and into the unsurprisingly empty establishment. The barkeep in the back looked up, saw Winter, and raised an eyebrow. Whatever signal Winter gave him, Weiss couldn't tell, but the man nodded stepped out from his station behind the counter to lead his two guests behind a curtain, around a corner, down a short flight of stairs, and into a dimly-lit room.

Winter offered a polite 'thank you,' and their host bowed and excused himself without a word while Weiss looked around at their dingy accommodations.

"I usually use this room for interrogations." Winter explained as she locked the door and stepped around the small table and towards a cabinet on the far side of the room, "But I do keep some luxuries in here in case I feel the need to get away for a bit and clear my head."

Winter opened the cabinet to reveal several rows of liquors and spirits, and she glanced back at Weiss with a questioning eye, "Any requests?"

Was she even in the mood for alcohol? Getting out of the mansion with Winter helped pull Weiss out of the dark corners of her guilty mind, but the idea of knocking back drinks still felt incredibly wrong.

"Water." Weiss said.

Winter raised an eyebrow, but only offered a simple "Fair enough" before she busied herself with preparing their drinks.

Weiss continued to examine the room with passing curiosity. After Winter had mentioned interrogations, the occasional dry and faded blood stain on the table and walls made more sense. What kind of interrogator was Winter? Did she frequently resort to violence, or did she try to use intimidation and scare tactics for as long as possible to get what she wanted?

Before she followed that chain of thought too far, something on the table caught her eye.

"Do you… ever bring anyone down here that isn't the subject of an interrogation?" Weiss asked as Winter set down a glass in front of her.

Winter took a seat across from her sister and considered the question while she sampled her own glass. "I've had drinks with an associate or two, upon occasion. I try to avoid inviting other people to this place, though. The fewer people that know about it, the better. I don't have to worry about it becoming compromised that way."

"So... you only invite people that you really, really trust?" Weiss mused.

"Yes…" Winter answered warily, "Why do you ask?"

Weiss decided it would be a good idea to not mention the note scratched into the table that said _Qrow was here_ , and opted to get to the point of why Winter made the effort of bringing her to this room. "No reason. So what is it that you want to talk about?"

Winter paused, as if deciding between which of two topics she wanted to pursue first. She finally seemed to decide, and she asked, "Can you show me?"

"Show you what?" Weiss asked, blinking.

"You… killed them yourself, right?" Winter asked, "I was slightly surprised when I heard Father singing your praises this afternoon, but now it's starting to make sense."

She locked eyes with Weiss and asked again, "If you killed them, can you show me?"

Weiss figured out what Winter meant. The undertone of reverence and respect in her sister's voice helped Weiss make her decision, and she pulled Myrtenaster off her hip while she stood up from the table and focused her thoughts on the recently departed.

She thrust Myrtenaster into the floor, and two glyphs flowered into existence behind her, and a white flash filled the room a few moments later. Weiss didn't need to look back to know that her friends stood at her five and seven o'clock. The impressed look on her sister's face told Weiss enough.

 _I walk through the valley of the shadow of death. I fear no evil for thou art with me._

Weiss could practically hear Conrad laughing at her use of such a cliche and overused quote, but she couldn't help it. A small amount of confidence surged through her soul as she practically felt Eshragi's smile on her back.

"What were their names?" Winter asked, her voice quiet as she looked upon the apparitions.

"Their earned callsigns were Osiris and Odin." Weiss answered, a hint of pride leaking into her tone, "I'll explain the meaning behind the names to you someday, if you're interested."

"I might be." Winter admitted, "I would also be interested in hearing stories you might have about the time you spent with them. At the risk of sounding presumptuous… I think they would have liked for you to remind yourself of their heroics."

Weiss dispelled her summons and sat back down at the table. Whether her sister's interest was feigned or not, it helped her feel less shitty about herself.

"I won't pretend to understand how much pain you're in right now." Winter said, "But I have experienced loss of my own. If there's anything I can do to help you work through yours…"

For all of the times Weiss complained privately about Winter's harsh personality and strict expectations, she had to admit that she was lucky to have such a sister.

"Thank you, Winter. I'll probably take you up on that. Was there something else you wanted to discuss?"

Winter let out a quiet sigh. It almost sounded as though she'd rather spend more time talking about Weiss's friends than whatever else was on her mind.

"Listen," Winter started, pausing to choose her words carefully, "I… I'm not sure what's going on in Atlas. During my time as a Specialist in the service of our kingdom, I've seen a lot of weird phenomena and dealt with a lot of criminals with delusions of grandeur, but nothing has come close to the global scale that we're seeing unfold right now. Whether or not this Cinder truly is the new Fall Maiden, which has its own set of huge implications, we just experienced the most horrific terrorist attack that Remnant has seen since The Great War. That happened for a reason, and we _still_ don't know why."

"Pretty convenient for Cinder that this catastrophe happened to allow her to win global trust with minimal effort." Weiss said.

"Or she really was a friend of Amber, and her friend's death inspired her to make a difference in the world." Winter countered, "And while I'm not sure I believe that, the point is that we don't really know. And that bothers me."

Weiss remained silent. She knew that Winter's hypothetical about Amber and Cinder being friends was utter horseshit, but she suspected that Winter knew that as well. Her sister was trying to make a point, so Weiss didn't see a need in calling her out on it.

Winter continued. "I trust General Ironwood, and I've watched him work himself ragged this last month as he strives to keep Atlas safe. I don't think he's taken a day off since the attack, and I don't think he will until he's confident that something like that won't happen to our people. I don't blame him, either."

"Okay…"

"It's taking some time to get to the point, I know. I'm getting there, I promise." Winter sighed and stared into her glass, "We've found nothing in the last five weeks, and Ironwood had become somewhat desperate to… achieve success, big or small. More than that, the heads of our government have become rather forceful in their demands that the General starts producing results. Quickly."

Well that sounded like a recipe for disaster.

Winter continued, "He's reached out to a lot of people and organizations during his work, and while many of his choices are logical and have a good chance of yielding good results, there are some that I know he wouldn't even consider in any other situation. People with no scruples, who care only for the acquisition of power and nothing for the lives at stake in light of the Vytal calamity. But the government is starting to get cagey, and they want results. Even if it means they demand that Ironwood starts scraping the bottom of the moral integrity barrel."

"Like our-"

"Yes." Winter said, cutting off her sister with a pointed look, "But worse. One of Ironwood's latest 'associates,' while he's not able to help with the information-gathering side of things, has promised the General technology that will drastically improve the capabilities of Atlas's military. To better protect our borders and keep the citizens safe, supposedly."

Weiss shrugged, "Sounds pretty par for the course to me. When aren't we improving our military?"

Winter shook her head, "We're talking biological enhancements, not advances to our mechanical divisions. This man, a scientist, supposedly, claims he can modify our soldiers to improve their strength, accuracy, reaction times… it sounds too good to be true, especially since he refuses to provide any details about his methods." Winter rolled her eyes, "Some bullshit about 'protecting his intellectual property.'"

That _did_ sound pretty suspicious, Weiss had to admit. Her experience with Vahlen's gene mods reminded Weiss of a quote about playing with the Devil's toys. At the same time, though…

"We did just suffer the most humiliating and comprehensive hack on our mechanized forces at the Vytal Festival." Weiss pointed out. "I can see why Ironwood might be willing to pursue this scientist's research, even if the circumstances are a tad concerning."

Given the dark expression currently on her sister's face, it seemed like there was even more sketchy information about this man than Winter had already given.

"Does the scientist have a name?" Weiss asked, "Maybe I'll recognize it."

Winter got up out of her seat and started to pace with her glass in hand. "He goes by Dr. Merlot. Supposedly he had a lab in Vale, but he ran into some 'trouble' with the Kingdom's council. Atlas's own top brass apparently doesn't see this is an important red flag, at least not important enough to warrant due diligence, and put pressure on Ironwood to allow him to do his research here so that Atlas benefits from his work. _A lot_ of pressure."

Weiss shrugged. "Never heard of him."

"What's frustrating is that he's actually producing results." Winter said, ever-so-slightly gritting her teeth, "Ironwood agreed to a trial run of Merlot's tech with a small batch of volunteer soldiers. He took them into his lab, did his thing behind closed doors, and returned to Ironwood with super soldiers."

That sent a small shiver down Weiss's spine. "On par with huntsmen?"

"Not that good, thankfully. But they easily placed in the top percentile of all the standard metrics we use to gauge soldier proficiency." Winter furrowed her brow, and her speech grew faster as she became more agitated, "Honestly, they make the rest of our ground troops look incompetent by comparison, which is making Merlot even more smug about his work. And nobody knows how the hell he makes it work, since his one condition was that he and he alone performs the modifications. But nobody's going to care, since he can apparently produce results. None of the enhanced soldiers have complained about side effects. None of them said anything about any dark secrets in Merlot's lab. And while Ironwood has expressed his doubts to me in private, his hands are tied because of the success of Merlot's fucking program. Something doesn't sit right, with either of us, and yet it would be political suicide to choose this hill to die on. And so, of course, the government wants to fucking acc _elerate_ the program!"

While the news was somewhat concerning, Winter was getting far more worked up about this than Weiss expected. The elder Schnee took a swig of her drink and slammed the glass on the table.

"… Are you alright?" Weiss asked quietly.

Winter stared off into space for a long time, and Weiss wondered if her sister even heard the question. She was about to ask it again when Winter finally said, "Ironwood asked me to volunteer as part of the next batch of soldiers for Merlot's science project."

And suddenly it all came together. "But... I thought you said he didn't trust Merlot?"

"Which is why he wants someone he _does_ trust to go through the enhancement process. Someone who is stronger, both mentally and physically, than the average soldier, who can keep an eye out for anything malicious, who will actually _report_ any fuckery rather than just be excited about the upgrades. If our suspicions are correct, we need to be able to shut down the whole farce quickly. And the fastest way is to put me through the assembly line."

That didn't make sense, though. If Merlot wanted being so careful about keeping his methods a secret, surely he'd be aware of how easy it could be for one of his patients to report everything to a superior after undergoing the surgery. Maybe he'd be confident that knocking out the patient before starting the work would be enough to keep his secrets safe, but that seemed like a risky bet to take. Something didn't seem right, Weiss guessed that Winter knew that, and now the uncharacteristic anger and agitation made sense. For whatever reason, Winter would not be able to talk her way out of going through with this (whether it was because she realized she needed to take one for the team to try and reveal Merlot's secrets, or saying 'no' to Ironwood simply wasn't an option), and she was trusting Weiss with a heavy secret.

Weiss wasn't about to spit in the face of that trust. "How can I help?"

"I'm not asking you to do the operation in my place, obviously." Winter said with a slight, bitter smile, "Nor would I allow it even if you tried to offer. But I would like you to accompany me to the facility when I go in for the procedure. It only takes a couple of hours, supposedly, and I would like for you to be there for me when I come out. Beyond that… I'm not sure. But my hope is that letting you know of this would allow you to keep an ear to the ground, or to keep an eye on me if you see me doing anything unusual. If you see or hear something -anything- that Ironwood needs to know about, you go straight to him. And then you report it to your remaining covert operative from XCOM."

Weiss's jaw dropped, "How…?"

Winter's smile turned into a smirk. "Have a little faith in your sister's spycraft, Weiss. You think I didn't notice them on the flight over from Vale? Now come on. I need more than one stiff drink before we're done here tonight. Why don't we enjoy ourselves for a while longer, and you can tell me some stories about the 'Valean Recon Division,' hmm?"

* * *

A/N: One final thing I'd like to add is that the Discord server I launched when I posted the last chapter has been a resounding success. We've got a lot of people swinging by to say hello, and a core group of people who I chat with almost daily. It's been a huge help in brainstorming a lot of neat ideas for the story going forward, and the shitposting is absolutely _glorious_. If you've been on the fence about checking it out, I wholeheartedly recommend you poke your head in and see what we've got.


	30. Volunteer Army

A/N: So two things I want to mention. First, this chapter is going up early because a promise is a promise, and I wasn't planning on breaking the one I made... thirty minutes ago? Second, this chapter was borne out of the requests I received to show more of the stuff that happened while XCOM was chilling in Patch. Sounded like a good idea to me, and so here we are.

Enjoy.

* * *

"Status report."

Van Doorn already knew the answer to the question before even entering the room. If the operator had managed to regain contact with Bradford, or anyone else on Remnant, the Field Commander would have been notified immediately. His daily routine of walking into Mission Control and asking the technician on duty served to remind the operator that continuing to make attempts at hailing Remnant was a very important task: Field Commander Peter Van Doorn hadn't given up on the Remnant operatives, and neither should they.

As expected the radio tech shook his head and looked up at Van Doorn. "Nothing, sir."

"Nothing _yet_ , Amani." the General corrected, "Keep at it."

The technician saluted and returned his attention to the console and Van Doorn left for the next step of his daily routine. In the days following the incident ('The Disconnect,' as XCOM personnel had begun to call it), Mission Control was fully staffed with officers, operators, and other personnel frantically working around the clock to regain contact with the Central Officer. Eventually, both Van Doorn and Councilman Bailey agreed to scale back the resources assigned to the task, allowing for operators to start focusing on more Terran hotspots that warranted XCOM's attention, until eventually only one console in the corner of the room was left trying to ping the soldiers trapped on another world.

And it would remain that way for days, weeks, months… even years, if need be. Hell would have to freeze over for Van Doorn to give up on Bradford. And even then, he would still attempt to get a signal out through the cold.

A few minutes later, the General arrived at Bailey's private quarters and offered a curt knock on the door. The councilman was still very much part of the international council, but he had come to an agreement with Van Doorn that it was best for him to set up a more permanent residence onboard the Temple Ship. The rest of the council trusted him, Van Doorn trusted him, and so he served as a very useful stabilizing element to make sure both parties were in agreement with one another.

Bailey appeared shortly and nodded his greeting at the General. "No news, I presume?"

"Doesn't mean we'll stop trying."

"Of course." Bailey said, ushering Van Doorn into his quarters so they could speak in private, "The international coalition's top minds are working tirelessly to… re-establish contact with Remnant. Until then…"

"We maintain our vigil." Van Doorn sighed, "It's unfortunate that we lost Vahlen, Tygan, _and_ Shen to the Disconnect. They're not the only brilliant scientists and engineers on Earth, of course."

"But they are the cream of the crop." Bailey agreed. "In other news, you have… excellent timing, Field Commander. I just concluded my weekly call with the council."

Van Doorn raised an eyebrow. "I thought you had daily calls?"

"I do. Once a week, however, the calls are more… comprehensive."

"... And?"

Bailey took a moment to decide how he wanted to present his findings from the council to Van Doorn. "As you know, XCOM has been... instrumental in assisting the International Security Council's efforts to mount a... coordinated defense against Grimm incursions. The program you launched to... equip and train national defense forces across the globe has yielded immediate results. The world leaders are… more than happy to abide by your 'twenty percent' rule."

The 'rule' was more of a request than a requirement. Shortly after losing contact with Remnant, XCOM started to request that they keep one out of every five soldiers sent by council nations for training. Not only did it allow XCOM to slowly recoup the losses suffered from the Disconnect, but the recruits were excited to work with the saviors of Earth, and determined to earn their place in the barracks. It was good to hear that the nations weren't resentful of XCOM's efforts to bolster their ranks.

Van Doorn offered Bailey a grateful smile. "That's good to hear. Councilman."

"The news gets better. As of this morning, a... unanimous decision was made to increase funding to the XCOM project by 30%. The budget increase comes with the... requirement that at least half of the new funds are used for the Grimm defense program."

"Not a problem at all, sir." The General said, "If our work to equip special forces is proving effective, XCOM is more than happy to ramp up our program."

The Councilman paused for a moment, and mild concern crept into Van Doorn's chest. Clearly there was something extra on Bailey's mind, and his hesitancy to say it made the General wonder if he wasn't going to like what his colleague had to say.

"Would you consider… alternative means of improving the military strength of the council nations?" Bailey asked.

And there it was. It seemed like the nations wanted their own psi operatives, MEC troopers, and gene-modded soldiers. Not that Van Doorn could blame them, but Bailey's request gave him pause all the same. Sure, everyone was united against a common threat _now_ , but if that changed in the future and countries started to once again fight amongst themselves… XCOM's soldier tech could make wars a lot more deadly.

Bailey sensed Van Doorn's misgivings. "If it makes you feel any better, I share your… misgivings. That technology was instrumental to Earth's survival against the aliens. However, we might be opening a… Pandora's Box now that the danger has passed."

"Those who play with the devil's toys will be brought, by degrees, to wield his sword." Van Doorn sighed, "And while I would feel much better if this technology was only under XCOM's roof where it can be easily controlled, it doesn't speak very well to our claim that we want to cooperate with the international coalition to keep the world safe."

"There's also the fact that your… Major Durand is not available to help guide the new psionic soldiers." Bailey pointed out, "She was the spearhead for XCOM's… psi research, if I remember correctly from Bradford's reports."

Van Doorn nodded. "That is true, but we do have some other operatives who seem to be filling the vacuum left behind by Durand. Geist is our most experienced psi op, and he's filled the role of the pilot for the Temple Ship as well as the psionic guide for the rest of the operatives in the program."

"That one comes across as more… zealous than the Major." Bailey noted, "He is skilled, to be sure, but he almost treats his… gift with religious reverence."

The General could only agree with Bailey's concerns there. Geist was undoubtedly a valuable asset for XCOM, but Van Doorn could see him slipping down a cult-like path if left unchecked."I'm keeping an eye on him, don't worry. In the meantime, I will talk with my staff about including MEC, bio, and psi branches to our training programs. I can't promise you anything right now, Councilman, but you have my word that I will give your request the consideration it deserves."

"Thank you, Commander." Bailey said, standing up to walk Van Doorn to the door, "In the time that I've... come to know you, I've learned that your word is all I need. Take care, Commander. And remember… we will be watching."

Van Doorn couldn't help but smile at Bailey's old habit, and he offered the Councilman a salute before leaving for his next engagement for the day. After all, XCOM needed to remain a well-oiled machine for when the Central Officer found a way to lead his merry crew back across the vast expanse of time and space.

* * *

Bradford walked into his office with a heavy sigh and nodded at his two friends waiting patiently for his arrival.

"Sorry for taking so long." He apologized as he stepped around behind his desk and reached up into the cabinet. A polite cough caused Bradford to pause and look back at the table where he saw three cups filled with steaming black liquid. He glanced up at the smiling Shen and couldn't help but chuckle.

"Well, I was going to offer you both a drink, but I can see that you're one step ahead of me." He sat down at the desk, breathed in deep to sample the aroma (Jasmine, of course), and took a sip of his tea before turning his attention back to Vahlen and Shen. "I guess this is better than alcohol, anyway. Shall we begin?"

Vahlen pulled out her scroll and placed it on the table. An array of icons materialized in the air between the trio, each showing the face of a different operative or huntsman working with XCOM. Bradford reached out and swiped his finger left-to-right across the available icons, sending them spinning in and out of existence.

"Done?" Vahlen asked.

"Had to get it out of my system. I know we were starting to develop improved haptic interface tech from the Temple Ship, but you have to admit that it doesn't get old. I'll have to give my regards to Miss Scarlatina when I see her."

"Dr. Vahlen can feign exasperation all she wants." Shen said with a twinkle in his eye, "But she doesn't know that I've seen her do the exact same thing when she's taking a break from her work."

Vahlen cast a mild glare at her partner. "… _Done?_ "

Bradford swept through the icons again, this time slow enough so he could scan the images and find the one he wanted to examine first.

"It's been a while since we sat down together to formally review the status of all our key personnel," Bradford said as the images drifted through the room, "And a lot has happened since we landed on Patch. It's probably best if we make sure we're thorough so that we're all on the same page, Doctor."

Penny's cheerful face slid into view, and the Central Officer tapped it once to expand Vahlen's dossier on Ruby's friend. "Let's start with our double-edged sword. I know that you two started work on repairing her hardware, but the fact that I haven't seen her running around the Avenger tells me that you're not quite finished."

The two scientists exchanged a look, and Vahlen reached forward to scroll down through Penny's file and tapped on an embedded image, causing the visual to expand and occupy the entirety of the holographic interface projected onto Bradford's desk.

* * *

 _The damage to her programming was more extensive than we anticipated, but we made good progress. And you might have noticed that we still have two Penny's on the Avenger._

MacAuley grunted as he and Senchin hoisted Penny's mechanical corpse onto the table in the machine shop while Vahlen and Shen watched. Other than Nicho and a few other trusted operatives, all work in the shop was postponed and all machinists were put on forced leave while Vahlen and Shen got ready to examine Penny's hardware. Bradford had asked Yatsuhashi to join them in the event that Penny remained corrupted upon reactivation. While it was highly unlikely, given that the Atlesian Knights were only hostile so long as the infectious signal was transmitting from Beacon Tower, Dr. Shen agreed with Central's decision to leave nothing to chance, and they both agreed to not ask anyone from RWBY or JNPR to volunteer for the task. A camera overhead swiveled to look down onto the lifeless body as the 'medical' team stepped forward to assess the damage.

Dr. Shen heard Penny's voice chirp into his earpiece as she directed her commentary specifically to the personnel standing around the table. " _I expect that most of the damage will be electrical in nature, as my platform looked mostly unharmed before we used the Odin to deliver the Electromagnetic Pulse._ "

"Which is why I tagged in Senchin, kiddo." MacAuley answered, "If he can repair the Amity Colosseum's main power bus while hanging from a grapple hook and getting swarmed by Grimm, then getting you fixed up should be a piece of cake."

Shen took his time to carefully peer over Penny's inert body. In his usual thoughtful tone, he stated, "The damage to Penny's body appears superficial. Indeed, there are only a few burns and tears in the synthetic skin.. The blistering might be difficult to repair, but it does not detract much from her overall appearance. It's possible we could find some material in Vale to replace the damaged dermal layer. Perhaps we could even use a standard medical bandage for the short term. Either way, the immediate priority is to get Penny functioning once again. The cosmetics can wait for later."

Dr. Shen suddenly frowned. As impressed as he with the exterior, there didn't seem to be an easy way to get under her skin. "Penny, what is the best way to… ah… open you up?"

" _You'll want to ignore the severed wires coming out of my back._ " Penny explained. The dangling wires hadn't escaped Shen's notice, and he recalled Ruby explaining that she had to cut the sword lines just in case Penny reactivated herself during the battle before the signal was disabled. " _The only way to safely open up the main panel…_ "

Half an hour passed by while Senchin worked, with MacAuley gophering for him as Penny's instructions required more and more tools from the shop. Vahlen and Shen busied themselves for the duration of the operation by examining the design of Penny's mechanical architecture, taking notes and (with Penny's permission) snipping off small pieces of material so that they could conduct a chemical analysis of the polymers at a later time. Yatsuhashi had stepped back from the table early on and opted to meditate in a kneeling position with his sword laid out before him.

" _Alright, you're at the last step!_ " Penny cheered as Senchin wiped his brow. " _Take the connector attached to the grey wire you just repaired, and move it back to receptacle 2B!_ "

With a steadying breath, Senchin followed Penny's final instruction. Almost as soon as the connector snapped into place, Penny's hardware shuddered with a forceful jolt. Yatsuhashi was on his feet in an instant, sword at the ready and his eyes laser-focused on the robotic patient.

"St-t-t-t-tarting diagnostics." Penny sputtered, her face still pressed into the table. Her limbs moved in short, controlled bursts, and Shen heard a faint whirring sound coming from her head. "Dia-ag-ag-agnostics complete. Major fragmentation de-de-de-detected."

"That doesn't sound good." MacAuley muttered.

Even Penny couldn't muster her cheerful voice when she added, "… _It looks like the EMP did a lot more damage than we had anticipated._ "

"Subjects ident-i-i-i-fied." Penny said, and her arms flailed as she attempted to turn herself around, "Is that you, Ruby R-R-R-Rose?"

"… _Perhaps I could repair the software damage by recombining with myself._ " Penny suggested, " _We could overwrite the damaged programming while preserving her memories and personality._ "

Beagle shook his head, "I dunno kid. There's something to be said about having a backup ready to go. What if this happens again?"

"You could still do a software uplink, though." Senchin suggested, "In fact, if we want to add foreign programming to better protect against another intrusion. I'm sure Gidjit would be happy to help you."

"Hel-lo-lo-lo? Who is th-th-there?"

" _And I did pick up some Terran software architecture from XCOM's archives…_ " Penny mused, " _It would certainly help solve the problem from before._ "

"R-R-R-Ruby?" Penny whined, and the flailing limbs finally succeeded in getting her into an upright position. She looked around with vacant eyes as she scanned the room for the Captain, "Are you there, Ruby? I w-w-w-wanted to apologize. I was a bad friend-end-end."

Beagle put a hand on Penny's shoulder, "It's okay, kiddo. We know you didn't mean it. Just take it easy, and we'll get you patched up, okay?"

Penny stared at Beagle, then finally nodded. "I will try."

" _Give me a minute to contact Gidjit, and I'll hitch a ride with him down to the shop. We might want to move me somewhere out of the way, though. So the machinists can get back to work._ "

"Sounds good. Give us a minute to let Penny get her bearings, and we'll see you in Vahlen's personal lab on Deck Four."

"Did I… did I hurt anyone?"

Shen felt his heart twist at Penny's words. Her software reconstruction efforts must have made some progress in the last minute, as her awareness and vocabulary improved significantly. So too, evidently, did her memory.

Penny noticed the concerned looks from everyone standing at the table, and she hunched her shoulders in shame. "The memories are still fra-a-gmented… but I remember enough."

"It's not your fault." Beagle said. For once the Captain didn't have a single trace of the usual sarcasm or dry wit in his tone. Shen didn't even realize it was possible, but if anyone deserved a rare streak of unfiltered kindness from Beags? It was Penny.

"But it is." Penny argued, "I was not… strong enough to resist the… the…"

Beagle shook his head. "Rose almost killed the Valkyrie kid when an alien managed to get in her head and make her think it was a good idea. I've never once seen Nora, or _anyone_ , blame Ruby for it."

"But-"

"No." Beagle interrupted, his voice firm, "There are things in life that we simply cannot control, kiddo. What we _can_ control is how we handle ourselves in the fallout."

Penny didn't seem to have an answer for that.

"I do not kno-o-ow you very well, Captain Beagle," Penny said, staring at the officer, "But I am glad that Ruby Rose has friends like you."

"You're not so bad yourself, kid." MacAuley answered from her rear as he worked to close up the open panels, "Now hold still for a moment so we can get you down from that table and over to Vahlen's lab. You're sounding better already, but I think we both know that there's still a bunch of stuff rattling around in your mainframe, if you get my meaning."

Penny dutifully held herself stiff, casting a glance at Vahlen. "I… think I do? I am looking forward to working with you to repair my systems, Doctor."

"I'm looking forward to you meeting the other Penny in a non-hostile situation." Shen said with a twinkle in his eye, "Something tells me she'll be able to help you feel better in ways the rest of us can't."

"All done." MacAuley announced.

A smile crossed Penny's face at the mention of her copy. "Yes! It will be nice to have a chat."

"Doctor's office first." Beagle reminded her, "Though Penny'll be there, too. C'mon."

Penny slid herself off the table, and squeaked as her legs refused to support the weight of her frame and sent the girl crashing to the floor.

"It appears that my system is still in need of serious repair." She said. Dr. Shen watched Yatsuhashi bend down and scoop Penny up into his arms, "I apologize for the inconvenience."

"Think nothing of it." The gentle giant smiled, "Everyone falls as we walk through life. That is why it is important to surround yourself with friends who will be there to pick you up."

* * *

"The upload and sequence validation will take some time." Dr. Shen commented as the video concluded and the dossier panel opened up once again, "Partly because we asked Penny not to rush it."

"And partly because we asked her and Gidjit to be thorough with their software firewalls." Vahlen added, "But Penny's platform is functioning now. I think she's just happy to be alive, and happy that she didn't hurt anybody. Ruby visits her frequently."

Bradford nodded. "I'm not surprised. And I think Penny could use a friend right now. Besides herself, of course."

"We really should come up with a way to differentiate them, though. Talking about Penny and Penny is a bit confusing." Shen mused.

With the flick of a finger, the dossier list started scrolling again as Bradford commented, "I think Mac's been trying to make the nickname 'Nickel' stick for our Penny. Not sure how much traction he's gained for it, though. Now then…"

The Central Officer looked thoughtful for a moment as he scrolled through the list of names a few times, trying to determine who to assess next.

"Let's have a look at Annette." Bradford decided as the list landed on XCOM's premier psionic/huntress, "I won't lie, I've been fascinated with how quickly she's picked up huntressing."

"Is that even a word?" Vahlen scoffed as Bradford pulled up the Major's file and scrolled down to the media collection.

Shen shrugged. "I guess it is now."

* * *

Annette grunted in pain as the flat of Qrow's blade slapped her across the face. It still amazed her how fast he could move while wielding something that looked (and felt) so heavy.

Qrow adopted a relaxed stance with his sword slung over his shoulder and grinned as Annette jumped back to put some distance between herself and her assailant, "You're pretty good, kid, but you've gotta get better at reading your opponent. It's not really important when you're fighting most of the Grimm, but some of the faster ones? And then there's rogue huntsmen you need to think about."

"Give me a few minutes, and I'll have it figured out." Annette quipped as she readied her weapon and prepared for Qrow's next assault.

But something didn't feel right.

A weird feeling, a disconnect in the corner of her mind like she'd been jolted awake from a falling dream, or someone giving her a tap on her far shoulder. Annette pivoted just in time to feel Taiyang's fist breeze past her cheek. She ducked and brought her shoulder up into her opponent's ribs, but Taiyang flowed with the attack and swept Annette's feet out from under her. La Volonte switched into a shotgun, and Annette shot at Taiyang's feet to both force him back and to use the recoil to give herself some momentum to reposition.

"Nice!" Tai complimented, dodging as Annette fired her shotgun several more times, "That's the sort of creative thinking we expect from a huntress!"

Her shotgun shifted back into a sword, and Annette crouched, felt the Aura pool up in her feet, and lunged forward at Taiyang. Before she could take a swipe at her target, Qrow came out of seemingly nowhere and parried the blow for his partner. The shotgun trick worked well last time, so Annette willed her weapon to shift forms, only to hear a _click click_ as something within La Volonte jammed mid-change.

The words ' _Fucking Qrow_ ' passed through her mind as the lanky fighter shoved her back with a boot to the chest.

"Everything else is gonna feel like a cakewalk compared to fighting against you and your stupid bad luck." She complained. A couple of hard taps against the side of her sword was all Annette needed to fix the jam, and Annette steadied herself and waited to see what Qrow and Taiyang might do.

Qrow chuckled at Annette's quip, "That's the idea, kid."

There. That tingle again. Annette couldn't figure out what it meant, but the slightly uncomfortable feeling kept her on edge so that she only took a few hits when the front of Qrow's weapon dropped open and started to spray scattershot in Annette's direction before her twitchy muscles launched her out of harm's way. As she continued to juke and dodge, Annette couldn't shake the feeling that she had a backseat driver offering her suggestions for how to act. A passenger telling her to move this way instead of that, to shoot her shotgun one second and dodge behind Taiyang the next.

And whatever sixth sense was telling Annette what to do? It was _working_. Once her techniques and tactics stopped getting shut down by Taiyang and Qrow at every turn, Annette started to just… flow. Sure, her motions and strikes were still rough around the edges, but the battle started to click, and it became easier to keep the rhythm going. Even when Qrow would nail her with a shotgun blast or Taiyang delivered a solid shoulder check, Annette managed to roll with the punches, recover, and maintain her tempo.

Taiyang grinned as he barely deflected a slash from Annette's sword. "You're doing great, Major! Keep it up!"

So what was this thing helping her? Was it a semblance? Some sort of danger sense that came with having an Aura? Annette remembered hearing about Ruby and Blake's fight against FNKI, and how the jazz player managed to dodge Blake's sneak attack against all odds. When it was just the odd twitch in the back of her mind, maybe she could believe that. But this felt more… active. Could it be something psionic, maybe? The idea that an Ethereal had somehow taken up residence in her head passed through Annette's mind for a fleeting moment, but she dismissed that notion almost as quickly as it came. Whatever supernatural power was in there, it was _helping_ her, not trying to kill her.

Annette blasted her shotgun to give herself a recoil boost before dropping into a power slide just as she saw Qrow start to bring his weapon to bear. Rather than risk getting her weapon jammed again, she shot her hand out in an attempt to grab the huntsman's ankle and trip him. The plan almost worked, but Annette didn't account for the display of acrobatics Qrow put on as he recovered from the surprise with an overhead flip. Annette rolled to her feet, sword ready to parry an attack. Her sixth sense twitched, Annette pivoted to meet Taiyang's assault, but she didn't expect the punch to be so… explosive.

As she felt her Aura fizzle and her feet lift off the ground, Annette caught a glimpse of Taiyang's outstretched palm and the rippling tattoos snaking along his bicep. Her senses snapped back to her current predicament when she hit the floor with an unceremonious _thud_. Her weapon clattered out of her hand, and she skidded a few yards before sliding to a halt at Qrow's feet.

"Well that looked like it hurt." Qrow commented with a raised eyebrow.

Annette groaned and slowly started to pick herself up. "Your buddy cheated."

"Cheated?" Taiyang asked with a chuckle, "Since when is a semblance considered cheating?"

"And since when do your enemies care about fighting fair?" Qrow added as he pulled Annette to her feet.

"Yeah, yeah…" Annette dusted herself off and took a deep breath, "Give me half an hour to get my Aura back, and we can go at it again."

Qrow shook his head. "No can do, kiddo. Got some business in town to take care of, and Tai's promised to spend some quality time with his daughters."

"In all seriousness, though? You're getting the hang of this a lot faster than any first-timer I've met." Taiyang grabbed Annette's sword and tossed it back at her, "Maybe it's because you've already had the chance to develop your combat instinct, but it takes most of my students a lot longer to pick up the flow of a fight like that."

Should she tell them about her battle buddy? Not until she had a better idea of what it was, Annette decided. Besides, Qrow just told her not to fight fair, didn't he?

"Alright. Maybe I can find somebody else to beat me up."

Qrow stretched his arms and stuffed them in his pockets as he headed back to the ship. "ABRN should be going on patrol soon. You can probably hang with them and find some Grimm to wail on."

* * *

"Now that I think about it, the Major has been on patrol with ABRN a lot, hasn't she?" Shen commented.

"Durand's grown ravenous for any opportunity to train." Bradford said, and he panned back to the list of dossiers, "And it probably helps that Arslan has taken a serious shining to her."

Vahlen made a few keystrokes on her tablet. "I'll make a note to keep tabs on her battle fever. If it gets worse, I can have a talk with the Major and try to figure out what's driving her so hard."

"I won't complain about it for now, since I'll take any advantage I can get, but that might be a good idea later down the line." Bradford considered which dossier he should pull up next. Watching Major Durand square off against Qrow and Taiyang reminded Bradford that he hadn't checked in with Tai lately. He'd mellowed out considerably since their initial encounter, and actually became one of his favorite Valeans to talk to among the new faces.

He cycled through the pages until he found Tai's, and opened it up to look through Vahlen's notes.

"Anything to report on Mr. Xiao Long?"

Vahlen nodded.

* * *

 _He and I had an interesting conversation last week._

Taiyang sighed as he ducked through the doorway that lead him away from Deck 5's main hallway and into some of the darker, quieter recesses of the ship. The sound of his dog's barks, and the fact that Zwei had stolen Taiyang's favorite orange bandana, led him onward.

"Zwei." The huntsman groaned, "If you wanted to play fetch or go outside, you could have said something. We're both mature enough where we don't need to resort to this."

The only answer he received was Zwei's cheerful bark. Taiyang rolled his eyes and stepped through another doorway and found himself in a room far more furnished than anything else this deep into the ship's belly.

"Zwei serious-…. Oh."

Yang craned her neck to look backwards over the top of the couch and raised an eyebrow. "Hey dad. What's up?"

That was definitely his daughter sitting there next to a smug-looking Zwei. And yet, not quite his _entire_ daughter. Words failed Tai as he tried to stammer out a coherent sentence, "Your limbs… they're uh… you know… sort of…"

"Oh. Right." Yang looked down at the empty sockets where her arms and legs usually locked into her body. "Yeah, Doc's doing some routine maintenance on them."

Taiyang stepped into the room, his eyes still fixated on the void where a small part of his brain still expected to see flesh. "Doesn't… doesn't she have, like, spare arms or something?" He asked, "You know, so you could still function while you wait…?"

Yang shrugged. Or at least, Tai was pretty sure it was supposed to be a shrug. "Probably. It just feels good sometimes to go Full Potato and lounge in here while I wait. Zwei makes a very good valet by the way. Speaking of…"

Zwei nodded, hopped off the couch, grabbed a can of soda from a nearby case, and returned to the couch with the drink in his mouth. Yang pulled the straw out of the empty can wedged into her chest so that her dog could deposit the new one. Zwei used his teeth to pop the tab, and Yang dropped the straw back into the fresh drink.

"Thanks buddy." She said with a wink.

Was this real life? Or did Taiyang die during the Battle for Vale, and this was some sort of twisted purgatory? Dazed, he stepped around the couch and sat down next to his daughter. She seemed perfectly happy sipping on her soft drink with Zwei curled up next to her, as if she were blissfully unaware of her complete lack of arms and legs. If she was this well-adjusted and at peace with the issue, then what right did he have to make a big deal about it? Then again, that was easier said than done, and-

"I got used to it after about a month." Yang said, interrupting her father's internal train of thought. "Sucked pretty hard before that, but… it helped that I have a good team."

Taiyang looked over at his daughter, and behind the familiar gung-ho expression, he noticed a hint of uncertainty in her eyes. Uncertainty, he realized, about whether or not her father would ever be able to look past the mechanical limbs and see his baby girl the way he used to. He let out a quiet sigh, as if he were trying to expel the negative emotions swirling in his gut, and offered Yang a genuine smile.

"Of course you do." He said, taking a seat next to his daughter, "I wouldn't expect anything less from my little dragon."

Footsteps echoed down the hallway, and the Xiao Long's looked over the couch to see Dr. Vahlen wheeling a dolly into Yang's hideaway.

"Everything's looking fine, Sergeant. Oh!" Vahlen jumped at the sight of Taiyang sitting on the couch. "I'm terribly sorry to intrude. I didn't realize-"

Taiyang laughed. "It's quite alright. Technically I'm the one intruding, it seems. Though Zwei's the real culprit here."

The little dog barked proudly.

"Well, I have Miss Xiao Long's augmented limbs with me." Vahlen said as she wheeled her dolly into the room. "While you're here, would you mind helping me with the reattachment process?"

Taiyang nodded and got up from his spot on the couch. He pulled out the limbs and set them on the table in front of Yang while she watched with amusement.

"So you were the one that cut up my daughter?" Taiyang asked. Vahlen's eyes grew wide at the blunt comment, and Yang groaned.

"Tooootally inappropriate question, dad."

"I'm still asking it." Tai said, his eyes turning back to lock onto Vahlen, "So… were you?"

Vahlen hesitated for a moment before she regained her professionalism (or was it courage?) and nodded. "I was. Do you know why?"

"As a show of solidarity with her partner." Taiyang answered, surprised that the doctor had taken the opportunity to counter with her own question.

Vahlen glanced at Yang, and Tai noticed his daughter nod slightly before Vahlen spoke again while she resumed the process of prepping Yang's legs. "Yes and no. While it's true that she originally offered her partnership with Blake as the reason, she and I discovered that the reason was more complex as we talked over the following months." The Doctor gestured towards the leg, and Taiyang picked up the hardware and followed Vahlen's guiding hands as she directed the assembly process. "On a deeper level, Yang feared what might happen to Blake if she was 'left behind' in the way that you were when Raven disappeared."

It was a good thing that the leg clicked into place before Vahlen dropped that knowledge bomb, because strength drained from Taiyang as soon as she said it. "… I'm sorry. What?"

"Doc's been doing routine maintenance on my limbs for months now, Dad." Yang said with a light laugh, "She knows more about me than any of my friends from Signal."

Tai looked over at Vahlen, who nodded in agreement and continued with her story.

"Yang watched how you suffered through your abandonment, Mr. Xiao Long." She explained, gesturing to the second limb despite her partner's sudden weakness, "And it affected her deeply. She did not let it drag her down, however. Rather, she drew strength and resolve from it, a promise to herself that she could do better. Would do better." Seeing that Taiyang was still in no condition to help, Vahlen grabbed the leg herself with a small grunt and maneuvered it into position over the socket. "She took a dark experience from the history you both share and learned from it. And when she saw a close friend at risk of repeating history, she took fate into her own hands and made a choice." _Click._ "You should be proud."

Taiyang didn't know what to say. He looked over at his daughter, and saw her looking back with an even gaze. When Taiyang finally found his voice, it was barely above a whisper, "You and your sister… you've grown so much, and I haven't been there to see it, to help you with it."

"It's okay, dad." Yang said, a gentle smile on her lips, "You've always been there for us, whether you realize it or not. That's the point that the Doc's trying to make. No matter how much we change, no matter how different we might look, there's not a chance in hell that we'll ever forget where we came from."

"… I love you girls. So, so much."

"I love you too, dad." Yang looked over at the table with her arms, "I'd love you even more if you could help get those reattached so I can give you a hug for this heartfelt moment."

Both Taiyang and Vahlen broke into laughter, and the emotionally-charged atmosphere gave way to comfortable levity.

"Alright, alright." Tai said, grabbing one of the arms from the table as Vahlen guided him through the attachment process, "But seriously, though, it almost seems like I don't know my own daughters anymore. You've been through so much while you were away."

"Well, it looks like we'll be spending a lot of time on this ship together." Yang said. Her arm clicked into place, and she flexed her fingers to check the nerve connections, "You can always hang out with me and Rubes in the lounge for a drink or something. Have some Daddy-Daughter time."

Tai nodded at the suggestion, but his attention was focused on the other arm he held in his hands. Now that the shock of Vahlen's story had subsided, he gained renewed interest in the tech. Atlas had similarly advanced prosthetics, and Tai wondered how technologically advanced XCOM was compared to Remnant's most cutting-edge kingdom.

"It's a combination of Terran bioengineering and alien nanotechnology." Vahlen offered, noticing Tai's fascination.

Taiyang looked over at his daughter, "How long have you had these?"

"Got my arms lopped off… how long would you say it's been now?" Yang asked Vahlen, "Eight months?"

"That sounds about right." The doctor agreed as she helped Taiyang lock the arm into place..

That long? Tai knew he shouldn't be surprised. After all, Yang acted like having mechanical limbs was natural as breathing, and he doubted it was this easy for her when she first made the change. Of course, it helped that she had a good team, like she told him.

And, Taiyang realized, good medical support.

"Thank you." He said, looking at Vahlen, "For taking care of my Little Dragon when I wasn't able to."

Vahlen looked up in surprise at the comment. "I didn't do as much as you might think, Mr. Xiao Long. Yang was more than capable of taking care of herself while on Earth. I just… helped when necessary."

Yang gave Vahlen a light punch on the shoulder as she stood up to stretch. "Ehhh, I wouldn't sell yourself short, Doc. A lot of people would be dead if it weren't for you. Or did you forget about my run-in with the Ethereal?"

Taiyang sat down on the couch, and grabbed the can of beer offered to him by Zwei.

"If you've got the time, I'd like to hear about it." He said, cracking the can open, "Might as well get a head-start on this whole 'reconnecting' thing."

"Doc?" He added as Vahlen turned to leave the two alone together, "Would you mind joining us? Surely you can spare some time to relax for a bit?"

Vahlen checked her watch and nodded, "I suppose I've got half an hour to rest before I need to get going."

* * *

"He's a good man." Shen observed, "And while his hardships are unfortunate, I think you and Miss Xiao Long did an excellent job of demonstrating how those hardships are an important part of his identity."

Bradford nodded. "It wasn't easy convincing him to let Yang go off and join Blake on her mission to Menagerie, but Ruby managed to talk him out of demanding he go along for the covert op."

"Yang owes her sister a beer for that one." Shen deadpanned.

"Why don't we take a closer look at the huntsmen teams?" Vahlen asked, "They'll be the most direct supplements to our fighting force, after all, so we should establish the best way to use them in combat."

That made sense. Bradford pulled up the dossiers once more and flipped through the icons until he had both Arslan and Coco staring at him from their holographic cards. "Which one should we look at first?"

Shen took a sip of his tea. "ABRN. I see Reese down in my shop quite a bit, but I'd like to know more about her team."

"We might as well take a closer look at the relationship between Arslan and Annette." Vahlen agreed, "Their bond could be very helpful, or it might be destructive if Miss Altan's interest in the Major is too… intense."

Bradford almost choked on his tea. "What, like a romantic relationship?"

Vahlen rolled her eyes. "It doesn't have to be. Even if it's platonic, a strong enough bond could cause Arslan to react poorly if anything happens to Annette."

Fair enough. Bradford tapped on Arslan's icon and pulled up the bodycam footage from one of ABRN's patrols with the Major.

* * *

"Keep moving, team." Arslan called back, "Lily's network is reporting a pack of Grimm up ahead. The sooner we get there to break up the mob, the less Grimm we'll have to deal with."

"It's not even that bad of a march, guys." Reese said, suppressing a giggle.

Nadir rolled his eyes, "Says the girl riding on a hoverboard."

Reese shrugged. "Not my fault you picked the most boring weapon imaginable when choosing your's."

"Reese…" Arslan chided, "You should probably be going on ahead and scouting to make sure we don't run into any nasty surprises. Remember, keep quiet and don't engage."

"Ugh, fiiiiiiiiine." With a low hum, Reese floated off towards where the proximity system reported the Grimm.

Annette chuckled,"I'd make a comment about how your team seems more focused on wisecracking and bickering than staying coordinated, but XCOM can be just as bad from time to time. The trick is knowing when to turn on the professionalism."

"It's… a bit of a problem that our team has." Arslan admitted. She waved her hand in another attempt to get Nadir and Bolin to pick up the pace, "I know that my teammates have the potential to be effective. I've _seen_ it. But… it's hard to pull that determination to the surface sometimes."

"Gotta start putting your trust in them rather than telling them to do something and then playing Team Mom when you feel like you need to clean up their mistakes." Annette said, "Once they realize that you're relying on them to get the job done, that you _believe_ in them to get the job done, they might be motivated to work together to exceed expectations."

"And how am I supposed to do that?"

" _Shit. They saw me. I need backu-oohhhhhh that's a big Beringel._ "

Fuck.

"We gotta move." Arslan said. " _Now._ "

Bolin and Nadir could complain all they want, but even they knew that the arrival of a Beringel meant bad news for Reese. The four operative-huntsmen dashed through the sparse woods towards the sound of a fight. To their right, Arslan saw a handful of Beowolves that were evidently also drawn towards the battle.

"Nadir." Arslan said, nodding towards the Grimm.

"On it." The huntsman split off and charged at the wolves, spitting rounds from his rifle before formshifting it into a sword to engage at close range.

"Not what I had in mind for a team-building exercise." Annette mused, "But there's something to be said about forging in the fires of combat. At least we know why the Grimm were bold enough to get this close."

The trio came into view of the main fight, with Reese focusing on keeping herself safe while the pack of Grimm snapped at her heels. The Beringel leading the Grimm chose to let its wolves chase the flying girl and instead pelted her with rocks and dirt from afar.

"Bolin, get the Beringel's attention." Arslan ordered, "Fight defensively until we get the situation under control."

Bolin skidded to a halt, kicked up a couple of stones with the end of his staff, and struck them in quick succession with his weapon to send them hurtling towards Reese's assailant. Arslan and Annette wasted no time diving into the horde of Grimm to disrupt their deadly game of chase.

"Cavalry's here, Reese." Annette called out, "Let's send these fuckers back to the underworld."

Arslan didn't know what that meant, exactly, but it didn't take a genius to figure out that the general gist was 'kick their ass.' A wide sweep from La Volonte created a large enough clearing for Arslan to step up, plant herself, and deliver a shockwave with her opening strike. A roar from behind told Arslan that Bolin managed to accomplish his goal, and Reese used the disruption among the Beowolves to land next to Arslan and Annette.

As Annette lashed out at the closest Beowolf, Arslan glanced at her partner, "Strike and withdraw. We can keep these guys off-balance if we don't give them a single target for too long."

To make her point, Annette backpedaled while Arslan shot out her rope dart and yanked herself into the fray. Reese shifted her hoverboard into a pair of revolvers and began to pick away at the wolves while they were distracted by Arslan, and Annette kept an eye on their flank and rear to make sure nothing caught them by surprise.

" _We've got more inbound._ " Nadir warned, " _I'm trying to keep on top of them, but… there's a lot._ "

Arslan launched herself back to safety with a punch to a Beowolf's skull and answered Nadir while Reese tagged herself in, "Fall back towards us and help Bolin deal with the Beringel."

"Wanna see a magic trick?" Annette asked. Given that she was already sheathing her sword, Arslan figured she didn't have much of a choice.

"Sure."

"Just get ready to jump in when I'm done." Annette said, her eyes glowing a faint purple as she called out to Reese, "You might want to clear out for a moment, kiddo."

The coloration in her eyes grew brighter, and Arslan noticed similar energy pooling up in her hand. A few moments after Reese motored to safety, Annette's hand shot forward and the ground beneath the center of the Beowolf horde erupted.

"Go." Annette said, and both Arslan and Reese dashed in to eliminate as many of the stunned monsters as possible. Purple lances shot past Arslan as Annette continued her psionic onslaught. An assault rifle chattered, and Arslan looked back to see Nadir running in to take some of the heat off of his partner.

"Go help them with the big guy." Annette said.

"What about the pack?" Arslan asked.

Annette's eyes flashed again, and she gave Arslan a toothy grin. "I got some advice from Lily that should help."

With a sweeping wave of Annette's hand, fire erupted around the remaining Beowolves. Amid the pained howls of the Beowolves, the huntress brandished her sword once more. Arslan heard Reese let out a low whistle before the two turned their attention to the gorilla in the room.

" _FUCK_."

And not a moment too soon, it seemed. Bolin's luck finally ran out when he caught a well-timed fist to the gut that sent him careening through the forest. Reese blasted herself forwards and upwards to throw herself into Bolin's path while Arslan hooked herself to a tree and arced herself around to catch both of them as they fell back to the ground.

"Everyone alright?" She asked as Reese and Bolin regained their footing while Nadir did his best to evade the Beringel and buy his teammates time.

"Bit winded." Bolin admitted, "I need a moment."

Arslan nodded, "Fair enough. Reese, let's go."

Shotgun blasts announced Annette's arrival to the main event, and the force of her attack took the Beringel's attention off of Nadir.

"Go right." Arslan ordered, and Reese took off to flank the monster while Arslan shot out her rope dart to pull herself into danger. While she didn't trust herself to go toe-to-toe with the Grimm's equivalent of brute force incarnate, Arslan could at least use her agility to distract and disorient that beast while the rest of her team wore it down. The Beringel didn't even stagger or flinch as she yanked on the rope to pull herself towards her foe, and Arslan yelped as she narrowly dodged a cinder block fist that came swinging at her face. Nadir's rifle chattered from her right, and the Beringel roared as it turned to punish the offending huntsman.

"Oh no you don't!"

Reese zipped in from above and raked the blades of her board across the Beringel's back, and Arslan redeployed her rope dart to pull herself out from under the Grimm to deliver a palm strike to its hind leg. Nadir kept up his assault, slapping in fresh magazines as soon as the last ones ran dry. Arslan's dance with the Beringel fell into a comfortable rhythm where she used her honed hand-to-hand skills to deflect the gorilla's heavy blows. With an immediate threat that refused to get out of its face, the Grimm was all but forced to focus its attention on Arslan while Nadir, Reese, and Annette pelted it from afar. In fact, it almost seemed like her success at tangling with the muscled titan had emboldened Arslan's body and soul. She'd never felt this focused, this energized as she ducked and swayed past the monster's steely fists.

 _You're doing great, Altan. Keep it up._

Arslan didn't even trip when she felt Annette inside her head. For whatever reason, the Major's presence felt inspiring rather than crippling like it did the last time Arslan asked for a 'demonstration' of psi.

Well, the rest of ABRN could probably use some encouragement too."Maintain the pressure! We've got this in the bag!"

The Beringel had other plans, though. Rather than try to smash Arslan directly, the monster slammed its fist into the dirt and sprayed a wave of soil into the huntress's face. A second fist caused the ground to shake, throwing the huntress off-balance.

 _MOVE_.

Amid the haze, Arslan made out a shadow moving swiftly and she felt the massive _thud_ of the Beringel impacting with something two feet in front of the huntress. And as the cloud of dirt was dispersed by the shockwave, Arslan looked up to see Bolin standing his ground with his staff standing between his face and the monster's muscled fist.

"Durand!" Nadir shouted. He took aim with his rifle and fired a shot at the Beringel's neck. The round impacted, and fire bloomed out and seared the exposed flesh.

"Meurs, putain de merde!"

Moments later a flash of purple ripped through the damaged hide and turned the gorilla's head into a bloody mess. Arslan looked over to see Annette, her arm still outstretched as beads of sweat rolled down her face.

The dead Beringel fell over, and the five huntsmen stood in silence for a moment to savor the incredible feat they'd just accomplished.

"Well I'll be damned." Annette grinned, "You guys _do_ know how to fight like a team."

"And I'll be damned," Arslan countered, "Your voodoo bullshit is even _more_ ridiculous than I thought."

Annette threw a light punch to Arslan's shoulder. "Someday you'll get to see a Psi Vortex. _Then_ you'll know the true meaning of voodoo bullshit."

* * *

"Those kids are a bit rough around the edges." Bradford mused as Annette's bodycam footage stopped playing, "But they've certainly got the energy and willpower to improve as a team. I think Durand will be a positive influence on their development."

"Do we actually know what their semblances are, though?" Dr. Shen asked, "I don't recall ever seeing them in action."

"Altan is able to, for the lack of a better explanation, project her Aura into something similar to chi to enhance her fighting abilities." Vahlen explained, consulting her tablet once more, "Reese is able to alter her personal gravity without Dust, which is how she stays on her board without strapping in. Bolin has vibrational precognition, allowing him to have an enhanced sixth sense beyond what Aura usually provides, and Nadir can amplify his Aura's presence to draw attention towards himself."

Both Bradford and Shen stared at Vahlen while she double-checked her notes.

"They just… told you that?" Bradford said, incredulously.

Vahlen nodded. "During their preliminary evals, yes. Why is that so hard to believe?"

Bradford didn't feel like pursuing that line of thought further. He scrolled through the dossiers and settled on CFVY.

"I'm definitely interested in this team."

"Is it because they're definitely interested in us?" Shen asked, clearly amused.

"Partly?"

* * *

"So you want to know more about XCOM, huh?"

Coco raised an eyebrow as she stared at Beagle from across the table. The rest of CFVY sat with them, and Beagle's familiar partner-in-crime, MacAuley, was present as well. Coco was able to convince the two operatives to have a sit down with her team if she supplied some alcohol, so a quick trip to the bar yielded a glass for all parties involved.

Before Coco could give a biting retort that yes, she had _just_ said exactly that, Yatsuhashi answered, "It is important to know your enemy, but it is equally important to know those who fight at your back."

"Not only that, but I'm a bit of a technology geek myself!" Velvet said in her usual cheerful tone, "I'm really looking forward to seeing more of your weapons in action!"

MacAuley took a swig from his glass and sighed dramatically, "It's a shame we're cut off from Earth, then. You would've _loved_ all the cool shit we had on the Temple Ship."

Beagle tutted disapprovingly at his friend, "Now, now, Mac. No point in humble bragging. Besides, we've got the R&D Dream Team here to help us advance our tech with a distinctly Remnant flair. I'm sure they'll cook up lots of fun toys for us to play with." He turned back to Coco, "So anyway… XCOM."

"XCOM." Fox agreed.

"We're an extraterrestrial combat unit." Beagle started, "Hence the name. Not sure how much you've been told about our little war on Earth, but a bunch of jackass aliens waltzed in and decided they wanted our shit. XCOM was -is- a coalition of the best of the best that the nations of Earth had to offer. You might notice the little color patches behind our necks on our armor?"

"Yup."

"Those represent the flags of the countries we hail from. You probably noticed that there's a metric fuckton of flags around here-"

"A metric fuckton is a lot more than an imperial fuckton, by the way." MacAuley interjected.

"-and that's because _everyone_ came together to give those alien fuckers their walking papers. So we're a big family. A crazy one at times, but you'd be hard-pressed to find a group of people more tightly-knit than the men and women who fought, watched their friends die, and carried on to save the fucking world when faced with extinction."

"We face extinction every day." Fox observed, "Especially now in these uncertain times. What makes your fight so different from our own?"

Beagle didn't move his eyes from Coco as he called out, "Penny? You there, kiddo?"

" _Of course, Captain Beagle! How may I be of service?_ "

"You've got any records from the Long War in your database?"

" _Absolutely! Did you have a particular one in mind?_ "

"How about Enduring Shield?" Beagle asked.

" _Pulling it up now! If you could put your scroll on the table, Captain…_ "

Beagle fished out the handheld device and laid it down in front of CFVY. The scroll lit up and started to project the footage saved from the requested mission.

" _Sir! Atlas is down!_ "

" _Shit… Five, get Seven patched up. Two and Three, you're on overwatch while Five does his thing. Twelve, I want those Heavies flanked ASAP._ "

Plasma flew in from seemingly all directions as the camera's owner dashed to cover, his heavy breath audible in the recording. Other operatives came into view, taking up positions as ordered by the lead soldier. A walking robot stomped off and disappeared from view as it jumped off the side of the platform where the operatives were holding against the of the soldiers, heavily armored and heavily armed stepped out of cover and spit hot fire down towards… whatever was attacking.

The camera panned to follow the direction of the fire to reveal a squad of evil-looking monsters, their bodies seemingly cut off at the waist with powerful jetpacks fused into their backs. Below them, other aliens skittered towards the embattled soldiers. Some carried guns, while the wicked claws on the insects looked designed for painful melee. The autofire from the soldier bounced off of their armor of the fliers while they moved erratically and took aim with their own deadly weapons. Green plasma rained down upon XCOM's position, and the camera panned back to show the downed soldier getting back to his feet.

" _You good?_ "

" _Yeah, just gotta rub some dirt on it and I'll be fine._ "

Beagle paused the video. "That sort of shit? The things-are-going-FUBAR-but-we-gotta-keep-going shit? That's what we do."

"That's just one example." Fox pointed out.

"Penny, switch to Operation Solemn Vengeance."

The screen fizzled out, only to be replaced by a new image. A strange, smoking ship lay crashed in the background. Green plasma flew from both sides this time around as operatives advanced on the besieged aliens holed up just in front of the ship. The familiar-yet-different voice of one Blake Belladonna echoed through Beagle's scroll.

" _Damage suggests the Elites now carry HEAT-class ammunition. Be advised._ "

"Is… Is that Blake?" Velvet asked, "She sounds like one of those MECs…"

"What, you think her robo-limbs are for show?" MacAuley grinned, "You should watch how she fights."

Two large objects slammed into the ground in front of the downed ship, and large robotic bipeds rose from the smoke and beady eyes locked onto the camera.

" _Oh come on! How is that even remotely fair?_ "

"That one's Ruby, in case you were wondering."

"Yes, we got that one." Coco said with an eyeroll, "Thanks."

" _Not sure what you're talking about. This is a pretty standard Tuesday for Strike Five._ "

" _Strike Five… that's Captain Beagle's squad, isn't it?_ "

" _Yes, ma'am._ "

" _Remind me to never accept an offer from your CO to join you guys on an op._ "

Coco looked up over the video and glanced at Beagle with a questioning look.

"Not my fault that I've got a reputation, kiddo." The Captain defended, "Just goes to show that I'm a stubborn bastard that refuses to fall victim to The Curse."

One of the robotic goliaths opened up to reveal a doom cannon, but a snapshot from Ruby caused it to choke. The squad chattered about how to take down the other and leapt into action. One of XCOM's MECs deployed a blast shield to protect the operatives (including the cameraman) while Blake ran the other MEC suit straight at the alien construct. Defensive smoke was thrown to hide the operatives and a psionic soldier used his supernatural powers to help reinforce their mechanical defender. The doom cannon fired, and heavy plasma fire pounded the defensive MEC over and over again, even causing Yatsuhashi to wince slightly at the level of overkill.

Except, as the smoke and dust cleared, the overkill turned out to be not enough. The camera moved from the safety of the blast shield just in time to see Blake and another soldier crash into the robot while it was focused on attacking the rest of the squad and tearing it to pieces.

" _Two and Six have the second contact locked down. All units, fire on Two-Three's target!_ "

It became XCOM's turn to beat the hell out of the robots. A fusillade of plasma fire and rockets erupted from the squad and melted away the protective plating of the first construct.

The video froze again. "You can see that Rose's team learned to fit in with the rest of us real nicely, and that we've got a few more tricks up our sleeves in this one compared to first video."

"That's partly because the aliens threw some new shit at us, too." MacAuley explained, "Those doombots? Yeah, they weren't around when the war first started."

"Captain Rose actually fought the first one we'd ever encountered." Beagle added.

MacAuley took a swig from his glass, "Let's go back in time a bit to show how we deal with a _really_ fucked-up situation. Penny, Devil's Hydra."

A massive insect, similar to the ones in the first video but easily eight times as tall, towered over a squad and chased them along the docks of a coastal village as they worked to delay its advances in an effort to retreat. The massive creature let out a shrill cry while its children charged at them and attacked with their scything talons.

" _Pennybot! Engage lancer mode!_ "

" _Affirmative! Target locked!_ "

"Ruby again?" Coco asked.

"Her whole team, actually." Beagle answered, "You might, uh, notice that Belladonna's not strapped into a MEC on this one."

Coco wasn't sure what Beagle meant with that comment, so she just continued to watch the video. The small hovering platform dove towards the towering creature with its red-hot spear and the desperate battle continued. The vicious aliens adapted to the new threat, neutralized it, and continued the onslaught. Another one of the soldiers, the MEC, threw himself at the monster in an effort to waylay it while the 'Pennybot' sacrificed itself in an effort to nuke the bug.

When the ocean breeze cleared away to show the MEC impaled on the dead alien's talon, Coco's breath caught in her throat.

"It gets worse." MacAuley warned.

Beagle nodded. "And yet, they don't give up."

What other choice did they have? The retreat continued into the marketplace of the village, and groaning humans shuffled along the streets towards the team.

"Zombies?" Velvet asked, incredulous.

"Because what kind of horror bug isn't complete without the ability to create shambling thralls that host their children?" Beagle said.

Ruby's squad eliminated the zombies that stood in their way. The camera looked ahead to show the evac transport with its engines hot, and Coco let out a mental sigh of relief. When the camera shuddered, though, it looked as though Coco had let her guard down too soon.

Blake's shriek confirmed her suspicion.

The camera whipped around, and Coco heard Velvet choke at the sight one of the bugs with its talon plunged into Blake's gut.

"Holy shit." Coco whispered, "Holy fucking shit."

"Since the Master Sergeant is still with us, she obviously survived. But now you know why she's got those robo-limbs. Penny, Glass Shroud."

Another hectic firefight where XCOM systematically worked as a cohesive and technologically-advanced team to fight back against unfair odds.

"Penny, Silent Crone."

Soldiers going down, operatives screaming for support, and yet they continued to stay focused and keep the aliens at bay while they mounted an emergency evac.

"Penny, Brutal Scepter."

Operatives escorting an unarmed VIP through a burned out observatory to get to the evac point.

"Penny, Blinding Mountain."

CFVY's first opportunity to see a psionic rift, courtesy of Major Durand.

"Penny, Crimson King."

Another operation that showed casualties of the war, and XCOM winning the conflict in spite of the losses.

"Penny, Bloody Hammer."

With each video that Beagle called up, CFVY bore witness to more and more of XCOM's talents, their tech, and their dogged determination to survive against what should be a superior foe. Several operatives took notice of Beagle's show-and-tell and wandered over to have a look at CFVY's reaction or to throw in a clever comment or two of their own. Eventually, Beagle grabbed his scroll and shoved it back into his pocket.

"If you're wondering why you made the right choice joining up with our crazy band of idiots, know this: when it comes down to the wire, when our backs are against the wall, and when we know the only way out is forward? Nothing will stop us. Nothing _can_ stop us. Our enemies will try to send us straight to Hell, but they don't realize that we've already been there, and it wasn't anything special.

"So welcome to The Team, boys and girls. If you like getting shit done, I think you're going to like it here." Beagle finished.

Silence followed as CFVY took a minute to process everything they saw.

"That was… impressive." Yatsuhashi admitted, "If I wasn't confident in your skills before, I am now."

MacAuley clapped his hands together and grinned, "Excellent! Because I think we could use a change of pace for now and let you all familiarize yourself with the _other_ side of XCOM."

Velvet's nervous look only served to make MacAuley's grin grow wider as she asked, "What side would that be, exactly?"

"You see, we have this very important, 'living' document that Bradford maintains. The operatives know it as The List…"

* * *

"You know," Bradford mused, "I was slightly surprised at CFVY's complete lack of surprise when Beagle pulled his pirate stunt. I had no idea that he introduced them to The List, but now it's making more sense."

Shen chuckled and poured himself another cup of tea while Bradford checked a few more stats on CFVY's file, "They'd have learned sooner or later that our operatives are an interesting bunch. May as well learn it at their own pace, no?"

"I'm not saying it was a bad move. I actually agree with it."

Vahlen snorted, "The Central Officer agreeing with Captain Beagle. I should mark this down in my calendar."

The dossiers came back up, and Bradford lazily scrolled through the options. He raised an eyebrow when he noticed one that escaped his attention the first time (and the second and third).

"I didn't know you had a file on our dear friend Oobleck." Bradford said, amused. Since when did Vahlen keep tabs on the other faculty members aboard the Avenger? It made sense, but… it just felt weird.

Vahlen raised an eyebrow right back at him. "Of course. I also have files on Port, Goodwitch, and Branwen. We need to track everyone's skillset, do we not?"

Well, perhaps it was time to take a look, then.

* * *

"COMRADES. IT IS TIME FOR THE SCIENCE TO RECOMMENCE."

Vahlen, Tygan, and Shen looked up as one Bartholomew Oobleck strolled into the lab. The animated professor zipped over to their table to have a look at their latest project, and his eyes lit up behind his glasses when he saw the hard light shielding.

"Ah yes, this certainly bears further investigation!" Oobleck cheered, "The protective additions to the Avenger were _brilliant_ , I must say. I can only imagine what you're planning as a further evolution on this technology."

"Personal shielding." Vahlen commented, her eyes still focused on the table, "The projectors we found on Amity were… industrial in size, and not very practical for soldiers to carry into the field."

Oobleck nodded emphatically as he peered over Vahlen's shoulder. "Very true. Very true. And do you have an idea for how to solve the issue?"

Shen glanced over at his partner and saw Vahlen's eye twitch slightly. While the Chief Engineer never seemed to grow tired of Oobleck's energy, he knew that not everyone shared his endurance.

"We have several leads." Tygan said. Shen breathed a quiet sigh of relief when Oobleck ran around the table and took up a position behind the junior scientist, "At the moment, we are examining the wiring in the projector to determine what kind of material gains are built into the hardware."

"And perhaps reducing the gain might also reduce the size of the electronics necessary to project the field." Shen finished. He looked up at Oobleck and smiled, "How much experience do you have with electrical systems?"

"Not much!" Oobleck admitted in his usual high-energy tone, "Though I am a scientist myself, my work with Sergeant MacAuley at Beacon was the first time I had the chance for hands-on work with wires."

"Oh boy…" Vahlen sighed. Shen made a note to talk with his friend later to try and help her learn how to deal with Oobleck's intense personality. For now, though, Shen waved Oobleck over to his side. For whatever reason, Oobleck chose not to zip around to stare over the engineer's shoulder and instead moved to stand next to him. Vahlen's jealous glare did not escape Dr. Shen's notice.

Shen gestured at the projector on the table in front of him. His wasn't torn apart like Vahlen's or Tygan's yet, he figured it would be a good way to involve the newcomer.

"I'm having a little trouble with the casing on this." He lied, "If you could be so kind as to assist…?"

"It would be my _utmost_ pleasure!"

Dr. Shen watched as Oobleck set to work examining the casing, the tools available, and Vahlen's case for guidance on how she managed to open hers. The professor made a few attempts at using a tool or two on certain parts of the projector (to no avail, unfortunately) before glancing again at Vahlen's work.

"Perhaps mine is a bit… jammed?" He asked, almost hopeful for a way to justify his failure.

Vahlen's answer was immediate and terse, "Doubtful."

Oobleck glanced back at Shen for help. The Chief Engineer nodded, handed Oobleck one of the hand tools, and gestured towards a particular panel on the projector.

"I think my colleagues had better luck starting with this section." He said. Sure enough, Oobleck had the top layer of the casing ripped off less than a minute later.

"Aha! The wires are exposed now. It shouldn't be long before we get to the real meat and potatoes of the problem!"

"You know, I'm starting to think that Captain Beagle is right." Tygan said from his end of the table, "Idioms appear to have a surprising amount of overlap between Remnant and Earth."

"Aha!" He cheered, "I think I see the power source! Or one of them, at least."

"You mean the transformer fifteen centimeters to the left of the entry box?" Vahlen asked, "We identified that about ten minutes before you arrived."

Oobleck shook his head, "No, not that. I have no idea what that is-"

"-the power source." Vahlen repeated.

"-I'm talking about the small compartment that is… down and to the right? It's marked with the two chevrons on the casing."

This time, Vahlen walked around to peer over Oobleck's shoulder. "What are you looking at?"

Oobleck pointed to a small, easily overlooked panel tucked away in one corner of the projector. It was small enough to be mistaken for a part of the outer casing, and nothing related to the inner workings of the technology.

"Most huntsmen weapons have a similar bit of hardware like that." The professor explained, "It's not big enough to fit a full Dust crystal into, but it's a common activator that allows the hardware to convert a smaller… thingy into a bigger one."

Shen had to chuckle at Oobleck's floundering finish. "Very technical, professor. Though I think the correct term is a thingamajig."

But now that Oobleck pointed it out, Shen recalled Ruby showing him something similar in Crescent Rose. As she explained it, the small device allowed her to channel her Aura into her weapon to rapidly formshift her weapon and to perform some of the more impressive feats of athletics the huntsmen are capable of. One of his first efforts with Vahlen to adapt aura into a power source for the upgrades they gave to RWBY and JNPR involved the small module, but quickly found out that the modules in RWBY's weapons didn't quite mesh with XCOM's technology.

He wasn't sure why a hard light projector that was meant for protecting spectators in a stadium would need an Aura conversion module, but perhaps there were other ways the technology was used. And maybe that would be the insight he and Vahlen needed to get the Aura integrated into their tech.

Maybe it was an igniter of some kind? They had already tried powering up one of the torn apart projectors to see how the electronics behaved during operation, but they didn't think to pay attention to this particular part of the system.

"Should we fire it up again? Shen asked. Vahlen just nodded wordlessly, her eyes still focused on the module as if she were trying to reveal its secrets by staring at it hard enough. Tygan tasked himself with grabbing their sensing equipment so that team could collect data on the gadget's function once they powered it on, and Oobleck busied himself with run-on sentences about the technology once he realized that the group was very clearly interested in the discovery he made.

"Yes, well, I may not know the exact science behind how the thingamajig -or rather the _Dust Trigger Module_ , as I've heard it called- works BUT I do know that it is a very important piece of technology that is closely intertwined with how we've learned to use Dust because most Dust applications that I've cracked open, while they're mostly just gibberish and a bunch of strange parts to me, almost always have one of those thingies which I bet are used to amplify the Dust's effect, and while I know that the hard light shielding has some other technology in play, I bet the same concept applies to whatever makes it tick which, when you think about it, is impressive with regards to-"

"How much coffee have you had this morning, Professor?" Tygan asked while he set up the scanners.

"Five cups. Why?"

Tygan tried to hide an amused smile. "Just curious."

Several minutes later, and the R&D team was ready to start their test. Tygan stood next to the projector to ensure it stayed angled away from the rest of the equipment on the table, Shen manned the station that supplied power to the table from the ship's supply, and Vahlen took up her usual position behind the monitor's providing data readouts from the sensing equipment. Oobleck stood awkwardly next to Tygan, though he seemed unsure of what he should be doing.

"Are we ready?" Vahlen asked.

Shen nodded. "Ready as ever I suppose. Power is set to its lowest possible setting so that the projector doesn't destroy this room. Or the deck above it."

Tygan flipped a toggle on the side of the projector, and an energetic blue sheen immediately shot out from the business end. The internals began to light up once the projector activated, and the sensors started to feed data to Vahlen's terminals.

"I am seeing some radiation from the Trigger module." Vahlen confirmed, "The spectral data is similar to that from the power supply we previously identified, so I do believe it functions similarly."

Tygan leaned down to have a closer look at the module. "There are no visual cues that it's functioning. It must operate outside the visual spectrum."

"It has signatures on multiple frequencies." Vahlen confirmed. "Never seen a pattern like this, if I'm being honest."

"Then again, we didn't do as much research into Aura tech as we would have liked." Shen pointed out.

The test continued, and Tygan probed various parts of the power grid at Vahlen's direction as she worked to get a better handle on how the Dust Trigger Module behaved. Shen watched as the familiar crease of furrowed eyebrows that only crept onto her face when she grew frustrated.

"This data is helpful… but it's not enough." She announced. "We need to find a way to add some variance to the system so I can gather some comparison data."

Oobleck lit up at the request, and a twinge of concern ran down Shen's spine. "I can help with that!"

Before anyone say anything, Oobleck reached into the projector's internals and touched the module while his arm glowed faintly. Shen didn't see any power surges at his juncture station, but something caused the projector output to spike, as the hard lights extended far beyond what their original system had allowed. Vahlen yelped and instinctively ducked as the light sheared through several fixtures in the room and sent them tumbling to the floor with a crash. Oobleck yanked his hand away from the module when he realized that he was creating chaos, and the projected light retracted back to its original length.

"I… uh… didn't realize that the module was _that_ potent." The Professor apologized. The usual excitement in his tone was notably missing.

Vahlen stood back up, dusted herself off, and looked at her data feeds. "At least we got some interesting statistics out of the spike. I can pinpoint the exact moment you… 'fed' the system with your energy." Vahlen looked up and smiled at Oobleck, "It'll take me some time to parse the data, but we might be able to use it to adapt Aura amplification tech in some of our designs intended for the huntsmen teams. Thank you, Professor."

And, of course, Bradford chose that moment to walk by the open door. He backpedalled a moment later and poked his head into the room. Everyone stood in silence as the Central Officer's eyes swept over the damage before settling on Vahlen with an amused look.

"Do I even want to know?"

The Chief Scientist sighed dramatically. "Sacrifices must be made in the name of Science, Central. Surely you must know this by now."

* * *

"That wreck in your lab makes a lot more sense now that I've got some context to go with it." Bradford said, "I figured it had something to do with Oobleck, but I was still amazed by the extent of the destruction he had caused."

"Bartholomew Oobleck may sometimes be energetic to the point of frustrating ineptitude, but his heart is in the right place." Shen noted. He glanced into his cup, glanced at teapot, and shook his head.

Bradford pulled up the dossier list again. "Right then, shall we-"

" _Boss, you got a minute?_ "

Shen perked up at the sound of Volt's voice over the intercom. He hit a toggle on the comm interface to change the communication to point-to-point so that the rest of the ship didn't listen in on their conversation.

"Only if it's important." The Chief Engineer answered. But he knew Volt well enough to know that the man wouldn't ask for Shen's attention without good reason.

" _Oh, it's important. I could also use the Doc's eyes on this, if she's with you._ "

"She is." Vahlen said, "What appears to be the problem?"

" _It's not a problem, ma'am. Well, it might be? It's… ah… an anomaly at the moment._ "

"You'll have to be clearer than that, Sergeant."

" _Oh shit, you're with Central? I apologize if I interrupted something, but we're getting some signals on the UHF band that look familiar from my days as a console jockey in Mission Control._ "

Shen perked up at the mention of the Ultra High Frequency band. That radio frequency required a direct point-to-point line of contact, so whatever Volt was seeing had to be closer than the horizon.

"Well?" Vahlen asked, "What does it look like?"

" _You're not gonna believe this._ "

"Spit it out, soldier."

" _Looks like the signature of a Harvester-class alien ship. Coming from what I'm assuming are the ruins of Mountain Glenn._ "

Bradford didn't miss a beat before punching the console to switch it back to broadcast mode. "General quarters. Major Durand, I need a ground team prepped for combat ASAP. Beags, get the Avenger landed outside the settlement perimeter. Firebrand can take the team in by Bullhead. Let's move, people."

* * *

A/N: Aaaaaaaand that's that. Gonna start getting into the weird shit next time. Until then, come say hi on the Discord! It's fun chatting with all you guys about anything and everything.


	31. Ghostwalker

A/N: Oh neat, this one is juuuuuuust under 10k words. This is also where things start to weird, so... buckle up, kiddos.

* * *

Annette looked over the crew assembled in the Bullhead. She had Arslan, Fox, Orryn, and Ren (as a replacement for Blake) from Dagger Team, Beagle and Macauley for explosive and engineering expertise, Ortega for long-range sniper support, Fonseca to work alongside Ren, providing medical triage as needed, and Socks to serve as a backup psi operative. Waiting on the Avenger was a second Strike Team composed of Ruby, Jaune, Coco, Nora, Talos, and Gizmo. Firebrand would pick them up after dropping off Annette's team and keep the engines hot in case more firepower was needed to deal with… whatever was waiting for them at Mountain Glenn. Nobody onboard said a word as they flew to their destination, and Annette was happy to see that despite the general levity found on the Avenger, everyone present was able to appreciate the seriousness of their mission.

The cabin rocked a bit on account of the pilot's efforts to keep a low profile by sticking close to the ground, and Annette lightly knocked on the wall between the cockpit and the cargo.

" _Sorry about the chop, boss._ " Firebrand apologized, " _We're coming up on the outskirts of the ruins now, and I'm seeing a nice LZ in a clearing on our two o'clock._ "

"Sounds good." Annette stood up from her seat at the front, and the rest of the team looked up to give her their full attention. "Dagger knows the drill by now, but it should be pretty obvious for the rest of you that we want to do this nice and quiet. Altan and Lie are on scouting duty. Keep a low profile and report contacts by commpiece. Chrom and Alistair are on point to quickly and quietly eliminate any lone wolves that the scouts identify. Ortega, find a good spot when we get closer to the ruins to set up, and Socks will keep an eye on you while you keep an eye on us. Everyone else, stick with me and keep your safeties on until I give the order."

The cabin rolled slightly before the doors of the Bullhead rose open.

" _Mind the jump._ " Firebrand warned, " _These things don't like to play nice with the dirt, so this is the best I can do for you._ "

Annette made a mental note to bring up the idea of rappel cables to R&D before giving a quick nod to her squad. The team wasted no time in jumping out and making a beeline for cover at the clearings edge. Ren and Arslan quickly vanished into the trees while everyone grouped up around Annette and started their advance towards the abandoned settlement.

" _Strike One, this is Central. Do you copy?_ "

Annette toggled her earpiece and answered, "Loud and clear, boss."

" _Firebrand is reporting a clean drop, and she's swinging back around to pick up Captain Rose's team. Keep in contact and notify us of anything you find._ "

"Understood."

Two clicks in her earpiece alerted Annette to the first Grimm contact spotted by Arslan and Ren. With a wave of her hand, Orryn and Fox slipped off to hunt down and eliminate the monster before it could alert others and bring a horde bearing down on Strike One.

"Gotta admit, it's nice having more of these huntsmen on our side." Beagle commented as he stepped through the foliage alongside the Major, "Especially since this whole 'super sneaky' business was never really our forte."

"That's why it's good to build bridges, I guess." Annette answered. Another double-click indicated more contacts, and another responding triple-click meant that the assassination squad was already moving in.

" _Actual, this is Shrike. We've got a decent view of the ruins up ahead, but there's no sign of a Harvester anywhere._ "

" _Granted, there are still a lot of tall-ish structures in the settlement._ " Arslan pointed out, " _This ship could be hiding somewhere in the heart of the ruins._ "

Either way, the fact that the Harvester wasn't immediately visible left Annette feeling vaguely uncomfortable.

"Assassins, catch up with the scouts and find a good entry point for us into the city." She saw a silver dagger embedded in a tree trunk to her left, and pulled it out with a grin, "We just found your marker, Chrom, so I'm guessing we're not too far behind."

" _About a hundred feet. Fox isn't sensing any more contacts nearby, so it should be safe for you to hustle a bit._ "

Annette looked back at the rest of her squad and nodded. They didn't sprint too quickly, given that Beagle had a rocket tube strapped to his back, but they still managed to catch up with the advance team in short order. The hill Ren and Arslan found offered a good vantage point overlooking the ruins, and Annette finally saw what they meant.

"Central, this is Actual." Annette radioed as she tossed Orryn's dagger back to him, "Reporting no visual contact with the Harvester, sir. You'd think something that big would be easy to spot."

" _I don't like the sound of that. Stay frosty, and take it slow. Volt is working with Shen to get a tighter lock on the signal location without giving our position away, but it might take a while before they have something useful._ "

"3-13, you seeing any good locations for a nest?" Annette asked. The ruins weren't particularly dense, but it didn't seem like there was any one spot that commanded a view of the entire combat zone. Ortega would likely need to relocate every so often as the ground team progressed further into the city.

"There's a couple." Ortega said, scanning the ruins through his scope, "And I shouldn't have any difficulty navigating from one to the next. Rest assured that you'll have your eye in the sky, Major."

"Works for me. Let's get moving."

The squad resumed its advance. Ortega's visual sweep of the ruins revealed a lot of Grimm patrolling the outskirts with far fewer venturing into the deeper sections of the city that he could see. Only a few Grimm roamed the space between Annette's hill and the city outskirts, and Orryn dispatched them without difficulty so that the group could proceed unhindered.

"Nice and easy, team." Annette warned, "Wouldn't want to ruin our streak of good luck, now would we?"

Beagle groaned, "You mean the one you just ruined by calling it out?"

A watchful eye observed the team of interlopers through a grainy IRNV scope as they progressed through the edge of the ruins. It certainly wasn't the first time a band of foolhardy adventurers thought that Mountain Glenn was ripe for a hidden, remote base of operations.

Unfortunately for them, they weren't the first ones to get that idea.

Still, the observer had to admit that these newcomers carried themselves with far more competence and tactical acumen than their predecessors. Those White Fang goons just stomped their way in, raised a ruckus blasting away at all the Grimm they attracted, and set up a noisy operation with their Dust deliveries and bomb production. Dealing with them was a simple matter of avoidance. This new intrusion? They moved quietly, and they killed the Grimm with surgical precision.

These people would have to be dealt with, one way or another.

Annette glanced down the next street and keyed her comm, "3-13? You all set?"

" _We're looking good up here, boss. Got a nice view of you and all the Grimm in your vicinity. Still no sign of the Harvester, though._ "

That threw up a couple of red flags in Annette's mind. The team was far enough into the city where Ortega should be able to easily locate the landed (or crashed?) UFO from his vantage point. The fact that it still wasn't visible raised a number of questions that the Major didn't have answers for.

"Central…"

" _This mission is getting weirder by the second. I'm leaving it up to your discretion as to when you need air support, Major. Firebrand is keeping the engines hot, and the cavalry will come rolling in as soon as you give the word._ "

Well, her paranormal spidey senses weren't tingling yet, so perhaps Firebrand should keep the engines hot a little longer. Annette waved her team forward, and the group advanced down the thoroughfare towards the heart of the ruins. Upturned slabs of concrete, craters in the road, and steel rubble all made for useful cover that allowed the operatives to leapfrog their way forward under the watchful eyes of their comrades.

Not a single shot needed to be fired so far. The silent takedowns by Orryn, Ren, and Fox were more than sufficient to handle the number of Grimm Annette's team encountered so far. Granted, Arslan's scouting allowed them to navigate around the larger packs, but it seemed odd that an area so 'wild' didn't have that many monsters roaming around.

Then again, if a Harvester did land here, perhaps the aliens decided to do a little house cleaning before carrying out whatever business they had at Mountain Glenn.

"Any update on Shen's efforts to pinpoint the signal?" Annette asked. The rest of the squad took up defensive positions to keep an eye out for trouble while Annette figured out a plan with Mission Control.

" _Yes, though it seems like Engineering has some kinks they need to work out._ "

What was that? Out of the corner of her eye? Annette snapped her head around to get a better look at the top of the concrete structure, but nothing was there. She silently flagged Arslan and Ren to investigate before keying her comm, "You mind explaining that, Central?"

" _We've got the Avenger holding position to allow us to track your signal so we can determine where you are in relation to the Harvester._ " Bradford explained.

"... And?" The back of her head tingled, and Annette looked to her right and could have sworn she caught a glimpse of a moving shadow.

" _According to their data, the Harvester is 200 feet below you._ "

The fuck?

"Weapons free." Annette ordered.

" _Major, on you-_ "

Annette's danger sense screamed, and she ducked in time to dodge a metallic bolt that sailed inches above her head. Interrupted cries of pain erupted from her squad as the other operatives were not so lucky. Fonseca hit the pavement with an unceremonial _thud_ , Fox yelped in surprise as a bolt crashed into his knee and twisted it sideways, and MacAuley barely got out a "HOLY SH-" before some kind of rope shot out from the darkness, wrapped around his waist, and yanked him out of sight with a yelp.

"MAC!" Beagle yelled, and a bolt slammed into his chest and sent him flying backwards into a pile of rubble.

Before Annette could even begin to formulate a plan, she heard a voice call out, " _Drop your weapons, stand up, and nobody has to die today._ "

Annette looked at Orryn, who nodded at her unasked question. The kid looked shaken from how quickly the mission went south, but at least he had enough of his wits about him to play along. The two of them made a show of throwing down their weapons with a loud clatter and standing up to face whoever was responsible for the ambush.

A hooded figure stood in the middle of the street, arms cradling a mean-looking rifle. The face was completely obscured by what Annette could only assume to be gas mask, with two glowing green lenses covering the eyes. A bandolier ran across the chest, with various tools and devices attached, while ammo pouches hung off of a belt wrapped around the waist.

The figure shouldered the rifle with a nod as Annette and Orryn stood up. " _Any tricks, and the number of living members on your team drops considerably._ "

" _Actual? Come in, Actual. The vitals on your squad are going haywire. What's going on?"_

Annette was about to respond to the stranger's remark with a biting retort when the stranger pointed towards where MacAuley vanished, where Arslan and Ren had gone moments before the ambush, and back towards where Ortega and Socks had set up their first nest. The Major followed the first gesture, and any words she may have had got stuck in her throat when she saw the Engineer with what could only be described as an anthropomorphic cobra coiled tightly around his body.

"Don't worry about me, Major." He wheezed, "I can think of worse ways to go than this."

" _Your theatrics are unnecessary._ " The stranger deadpanned.

Annette also glanced up at the top of the building to her left and saw an unconscious Arslan and Ren propped up by another pair of similarly-dressed strangers. Or, at least Annette was pretty sure they were similarly dressed. No matter how much she tried to concentrate on the captors, she couldn't quite get them to come into focus. The visual aberration only served to cement Annette's unshakable feeling that the shadows were still playing tricks on her.

Either way, the Major knew she needed to say something. And she needed to let Central know that the mission had gone sideways.

"You haven't killed us yet." She said, making a show of rubbing her temple so that she could triple-tap her commpiece with her thumb, "So why don't we start with what you want from us?"

An affirmative double-click echoed in her ear.

" _Answers._ "

"You gotta give me questions first."

" _Why are you here?_ "

"Trying to find a place to lay low." Annette shrugged, "Didn't realize that you weirdos had called dibs first."

The stranger didn't respond to Annette's answer, and she wondered if they were glaring underneath the gasmask.

"Do I get a turn at the questions?" Annette jabbed a finger at the cobra, "Because I'm dying to know what the fuck _that_ is, and why you're cooperating with it."

" _Speak one more ill word about our Viper sisters, and it will be your last._ "

Annette still didn't know if these humanoids were allied with the Ethereals, or if the snake things were even _part_ of the alien coalition. It still didn't explain the Harvester signal, though.

" _Why are you hunting us?_ "

Guess it was their turn to ask the question again. Annette just needed to stall long enough for Firebrand to make an entrance.

"I don't know what you're talking about." The Major said, "We're armed because this is Grimm territory."

" _And yet you fired not even a single shot despite many opportunities to do so. Nor is moving from cover to cover a necessary tactic when fighting mindless beasts. You did not come to hunt the Grimm._ "

"You're right, we didn't. We came to find a place to lay low, _like I said in the first place._ Why would we kill Grimm and risk drawing more in if we can avoid it by moving silently?"

" _And the squad tactics?_ "

Might as well be upfront about it. "We picked up some radio signals coming from the ruins when we first got close. Figured we should be prepared in case the signals weren't friendly." Annette gestured around her at the ambush, " _Clearly_ we were overreacting, weren't we?"

The masked figure stared at Annette for a few moments before clicking the radio strapped to the shoulder of the bandolier.

" _Send a team to sweep The Hub._ " The figure muttered, trying to talk in a tone too low for the prisoners to hear, " _Somebody forgot to turn the lights off on their way out._ "

"So you do know what the signal is." Annette said, "Which means you _are_ working with them."

" _I'm sure I have no idea what you're talking about._ "

" _Above us!_ "

Annette looked up and grinned at the two fireballs hurtling down towards the ruins from the sky. Pink contrails streaked ahead of the fireball and plumed into thick cloud cover at Annette's feet.

" _I TOLD YOU NO TRICKS._ "

Annette dashed out of the smoke just in time for one of the MECs to slam into the street on her right while Nora's hammer rippled the pavement with a resounding smash on her left. The other MEC airdropped onto the building where Ren and Arslan were held captive, and a rose-petalled ball of rage crashed into the captor. Coco leapt off of Gizmo's back and unpacked her gatling gun.

The leading figure stumbled back from Nora's shockwave, and Annette seized the opportunity to shoulder check her foe while Orryn sent a dagger hurtling at MacAuley's jailor. The cobra (or Viper, apparently) reflexively leapt away from the danger and released the XCOM engineer in the process. Several more steel bolts flew out of the shadows as new Vipers joined the fight, but the reinforced armor of the MEC platforms were unfazed by the weaponry.

The first volley of bullets from both sides started to fly when a deep, rumbling hiss rolled across the battlefield. The XCOM operatives stopped firing for a moment to assess the new threat, but the reaction from their aggressors was much more extreme. All of the masked figures, and especially the Vipers, backed up and knelt down with their weapons pointed at the ground.

"Great…" MacAuley groaned, bending down next to Beagle to revive his friend, "Time to meet the Viper King, apparently."

What materialized before them wasn't all that far off from Mac's sarcastic comment. A Viper, far larger and with a more impressive scale pattern than any of the others Annette had seen so far, seemingly coalesced from the shadows of a nearby building and made his way towards Annette and the mysterious stranger. Its posture, while confident and imposing, did not convey any sort of hostility towards Annette as it kept is eyes locked on hers during its approach. The Major backed off from the masked figure, who the Viper helped to its feet. It hissed quietly, and while the noise didn't sound any different to Annette, the figure seemed to understand perfectly.

" _Of course, Archon._ " The figure said, and the Viper stepped (or rather, slithered) back and watched as its lieutenant approached Annette while taking off the mask. As the Major tried to get a better look at the hooded figure, the weathered and hardened look of a woman looked back at her.

"On behalf of our leader, I extend a formal apology."

Annette looked at the outstretched hand, shrugged, and shook it.

"Apology accepted, I guess." She said, noticing that the Viper had not taken his eyes off of her, "But… why?"

The Viper hissed again, and the woman nodded.

"He says that you bear the mark of fate."

"What the fuck does _that_ mean?" Beagle asked, rubbing his neck while MacAuley helped him up to his feet. As the conversation progressed, the rest of the combatants from both sides slowly started to converge on Annette, the Viper, and his translator, "Can you ask your Archon to be a bit less cryptic?"

The Viper shook his head, and the woman continued to speak for him, "Unfortunately not. Although our esteemed leader disagrees with the Ancients on a great many things, he has no choice but to agree with the wisdom that some truths must be learned in the face of adversity." She looked Annette directly in the eye "You will learn what he means in time. For now, you and your kin are invited to take advantage of our hospitality."

A smirk crossed Annette's face. "Does that hospitality extend to our Atlesian Cruiser?"

* * *

This afternoon had been a rollercoaster of emotions for Bradford (and XCOM as a whole) so far. From the tentative optimism of finally leaving Patch, to the mild panic when the Central Officer sounded general quarters, to the very real panic when Annette's op started to go sideways. And now they were guests of a strange cult of snakemen and their followers? Never in a million years would Bradford have predicted that plot twist.

While most of his crew was busy securing the Avenger and meeting with the locals, Bradford now found himself travelling into the heart of the Viper's settlement, accompanied by the Archon, his Lieutenant, and a small honorguard of other Vipers. At Bradford's request, the Archon had agreed to allow XCOM's Chief Scientist and Engineer, to join them. Additionally, the 'Viper King' (as MacAuley started to call him) insisted that both Annette and Ruby join the delegation. Bradford already knew that his host saw something special in the Major, but he couldn't get a straight answer as to why the Archon wanted Ruby as well.

Their journey so far took them into the abandoned upper levels of the underground that were soiled with chemicals, Dust, and similar signs of past inhabitants. The mid levels showed the first signs of living residents, with both Vipers and their human counterparts wandering around various corridors as they went about their daily duties.

"Almost reminds you of the Anthill, doesn't it?" Ruby asked. Bradford had to agree.

The lower levels were much more quiet, though Bradford guessed that was likely due to the increased security clearance requirements. The group had to stop more than once to allow the Archon's adjutant to use a retinal scanner or release a biometric lock.

As Vahlen gazed in wonder and took furious notes on their surroundings, Bradford decided he may as well review what he'd learned so far from their guide.

"So let me get this straight," He said to the woman, Elena, who was leading the small group deeper and deeper into the lower levels of the complex, "You've got the gutted remains of an alien ship down here, which the Vipers refer to as their 'birthplace' on this planet. They've live down here, for centuries as they've told you, hidden away from the world, surviving in solitude…"

"Correct." Elena agreed.

"And people like you who wander too close are kidnapped and inducted into this enclave to maintain the secret of their existence?"

While the Archon offered no reaction to Bradford's comment, Elena's unamused side-eye was loud enough for the both of them, "... A crass way of putting it, but not entirely incorrect. Keep in mind that it's not quite as black-and-white as you make it out to be. I was an infant when the ruins above us were the beginnings of a new settlement. The Archon himself saved my life when the Grimm overran Mountain Glenn, He raised me, gave me my name, and taught me how to survive against the harsh realities of a world infested by something as evil as the Grimm. I most assuredly would not be standing here today if not for his providence."

Bradford didn't really have an answer to that. Perhaps he held some intrinsic bias against the Vipers because of their association with the Ethereals (as well as their alien nature). The Archon, he reminded himself, had not only averted a very bloody firefight, but invited XCOM to seek refuge in his home. Could it be an elaborate ambush? Possibly. But Annette confided in Bradford that she couldn't detect any malicious emotions from the Archon, or any of his followers once he made it known that XCOM was welcome in Mountain Glenn.

Vahlen pulled out a small pencil from her pocket and ran it across one of the metal panels along the wall.

"The hardness of this material matches that of the alien alloys, Central." She confirmed, "They are likely not lying about the repurposed Harvester."

"Why would we lie to you?" Elena asked.

Bradford chuckled, "The past hour have raised a lot of questions, miss Dragunova. You'll forgive us for exercising a healthy amount of skepticism."

The party continued their journey until they reached a heavy set of double-doors blocked by what looked like a hard light projector similar to what Beagle's team found on Amity.

"Beyond here lies the greatest of our technology, and our most heavily guarded secrets. The Archon has asked that you be given access as a gesture of goodwill."

"The gesture is certainly appreciated." Doctor Shen answered, nodding directly to the Viper, "I don't doubt that my associate could spend hours studying your technology, if given the opportunity."

This time, the Viper King himself stepped forward to deactivate the barriers. He breathed out gently, and Bradford noticed the frosty air that drifted towards the receiver panel.

A few seconds later, the red light next to the lock switched to green, and the hard light barrier dropped to allow the party forward. Everyone stopped once more in front of the double doors as, again, the Viper King moved forward to provide the proper security clearance. Rather than breathe on the console, however, he lifted up his hand to the panel. Black motes briefly surrounded his palm, and the doors unlocked with a _click_.

The doors swung inward to reveal a room full of what Bradford recognized as alien technology. While the Central Officer had never really spent time scrutinizing the materiel and salvage brought back from UFO ops, he'd seen enough to recognize the telltale design from their ships and technology.

Flight computers… power sources… fabrication equipment…

"Yeah, Vahlen will definitely be busy for a while." Bradford said. Almost as soon as he said it, the Chief Scientist rushed forward to examine the equipment. Shen followed behind her, albeit at a slower pace. Bradford noticed several doors further in, and he wondered if they led to even more surprises that the Vipers kept secured down here. With the two researchers becoming engrossed with the bounty of tech, Bradford, Annette, and Ruby were left to watch with the Archon and his posse.

"Our technology is yours." Elena said, "The Archon wills it so."

"Kinda raises the question of 'why?' though…" Ruby mused, "I'm not one to spit in the face of good fortune, but I still have to wonder, you know?"

Bradford watched as the Archon moved to stand next to Ruby and reached out with one hand to touch her temple. The gesture wasn't at all violent. Rather, the expression in the Viper King's eyes was one of compassion, and Ruby's face slowly changed to match.

"Okay, you have _got_ to show me how you do that." Ruby mumbled, her eyes still locked with the Viper.

"If you've known the Archon for as long as I have," Elena mused, "You would know that he does not make these gestures lightly. Whatever he sees in you, Major Durand, and your XCOM, it is very important to him that you succeed."

"Just wish we knew why." Bradford commented. He'd already heard Elena's spiel about 'learning the truth through struggle,' though he didn't entirely believe that to be the reason for the Viper's cryptic logic. Still, everything else the Archon had done was incredibly generous, so Bradford wasn't in a position to complain.

"Bradford." Vahlen said, popping her head out from around the corner of a hallway, "A word, if you please."

Ruby and Annette continued chatting with Elena while Bradford excused himself to see what Vahlen had uncovered. His Chief Scientist lead him down the hall and through a doorway until they were staring at one of several alien pod arranged in a row spanning the length of the small room. Bradford remembered reports about pods being used to store abducted humans, so he wasn't exactly sure why Vahlen wanted to show him this one.

"I thought we didn't like these things." He said, furrowing his brow.

Vahlen shook her head. "We don't. Not usually."

"So what's different about this one?"

"It's…" His Chief Scientist struggled to explain, "Well, it appears to be a combination of several alien technologies."

Bradford didn't know if that was good or bad. "How so?"

"I don't recall seeing it in any of the salvage we picked up during the Long War, but this isn't simply an alien stasis pod, Bradford. It has several devices and pieces of hardware that lead me to believe that it also serves as a surgery table. We can ask Elena, but I think that the fluid in there is supposed to be medicinal in nature, to help with the recovery process of an operation."

Now he understood why Vahlen wanted to talk about this. The medical supplies on the Avenger, while decent, paled in comparison to what Vahlen had at her disposal back on Earth. With the technology in here, though, XCOM's medical staff could do a hell of a lot more for the wounded.

A hell of a lot more.

"I haven't fully investigated all of the tech they have in here." Vahlen added, "So I'm certain there is more than just this pod that I could use. It wouldn't surprise me if they still have supplies of Elerium in here, or even Meld."

Meld… the idea of once again having access to resources that they'd lost when the Hyperwave link vanished ignited a spark of hope in Bradford's soul. Assuming that the Archon was willing to share his toys, XCOM's technological capabilities just doubled in less than twenty-four hours.

Bradford worked to keep his voice level and calm, "We need to play our cards right and take this slow, Doctor. From what we've seen so far, these people are happy to share their resources with us, but it'll look a lot better if we allow them to offer their aid instead of having us ask for it. If we show their leadership that we have people in dire need of technology like this…"

"... they will realize that we aren't wasting their gifts." Vahlen agreed, "And I think we both know who the perfect candidate for this will be."

* * *

"Alright, so I know that this whole 'Grimm Hunting Expedition' is supposed to be a way for us to build some cohesion between our units, but doesn't that seem a little… easy?"

MacAuley racked the slide on his Gauss Rifle and raised an eyebrow at the Viper slithering on his left. The creature hissed lazily in response, it's eyes still locked on the road ahead.

"She says that you won't be using those on our hunt." one of the Reapers translated, "They are far too noisy for this sort of operation, anyway. If you want to learn how we were able to catch you completely flat-footed in our first encounter, you're going to have to get more familiar with the concept of stealth."

"Kid," Beagle said from MacAuley's right, "I use a fucking _rocket launcher_."

"Which is going to be replaced with a Boltcaster for today." The young man said, shoving a weird crossbow-looking weapon at MacAuley while taking away his Gauss weapon.

While Beagle was busy grumbling about how Trenchcoat still got to keep _his_ rifle, Mac looked over his new Boltcaster as the road gave way to woods. It was already loaded with a mean-looking rod, and it didn't take an Engineer's eye to see just how much tension was loaded in the weapon's cable system. While the physics behind the weapon was somewhat rudimentary, MacAuley had to acknowledge the craftsmanship that went into it. The Viper leaned over and prodded the tip of the bolt as she hissed, drawing a faint amount of blood as the weapon easily pierced her skin.

MacAuley pulled the weapon away. "Alright, alright. It's potent. Don't need to hurt yourself to make your point."

"The one that knocked me off my feet was pretty blunt." Beagle noted, "Guess I owe you guys a thanks for pulling your punches."

The four of them continued in silence for another couple of minutes, and MacAuley quietly marveled at the lack of sound as they moved. The Reapers had made some modifications to the gear worn by the XCOM operatives before each of the 4-man squads left for their respective missions, and the Engineer had to admit that these guys really did know a thing or five about how to stay hidden. His reverie didn't last much longer, however, once the Viper hissed and the Reaper raised a hand.

"Beowolves ahead. Three of them." He glanced at MacAuley, "You stay with Vessira. Captain, with me. Catch"

The Reaper tossed something to Beagle while MacAuley followed his Viper buddy. She hefted her own Bolt Caster, and the two assassins dropped into a defensive position behind a rotting tree trunk. Apparently she was the one that had attacked him during the ambush, and Elena had decided that pairing them off would be a good way to make amends for the initial hostility.

Vessira tracked the Grimm party with her caster while MacAuley watched the Reaper approach the monsters with Beagle in tow. MacAuley noticed his Captain fumbling with something in his hands, but he couldn't quite make out what.

The Viper nudged him with a quiet hiss, and MacAuley guessed she was probably asking him to ready his weapon, too.

"Alright, alright. Are there any torque settings I should know about on this thing? Or is it an easy point-and-shoot?"

Vessira just stared at him.

"Point-and-shoot." MacAuley sighed, "Got it."

He looked up again to see where their advance party had gone, and panicked for a moment when he couldn't find them. The Viper must have noticed, as she put a hand on MacAuley's arm to get his attention before pointing into the trees. He struggled to see where she was looking for a few seconds before finally making out a pair of blurry, shadowy figures.

"How the _fuck_ do you guys do that?" the Engineer muttered. The question was rhetorical, but Vessira held up her wrist to show a somewhat bulky… bracelet was the only word MacAuley could think of. He'd noticed it earlier, but figured it was some sort of weird decorative thing for the Vipers since they all seemed to have one.

"You're going to have to have your translator buddy expand on that in more detail when he gets back." MacAuley sighed, "And I should probably learn how to speak snek before this war is over."

The Viper lightly smacked MacAuley upside the head before returning her attention to the Beowolves.

" _In position._ " The Reaper whispered into MacAuley's ear a few seconds later, " _Fire at will._ "

The two boltcasters discharged within a fraction of a second of each other, and MacAuley watched as one Beowolf gained a new skull ornament while another found its arm pinned to an oak.

"I'll just pretend that mine was the headsho _oohhh shit what the fuck?!_ '

The Beowolves barely had time to recover before the advance team moved in, and MacAuley watched the Reaper jam something mounted on his arm into the throat of the third monster while Beagle followed suit on its pinned brethren and rammed something up into the Beowolf's skull. The Reaper threw his victim to the ground, maintaining the throat stab until the wolf dissolved into thin air.

"Okay, that… that was fucking _metal_."

The Viper smirked and held out her arm again to reveal the bracelet. MacAuley heard something _click_ , and a pair of parallel blades slid out and locked into place to reveal a wrist-mounted dagger.

"When we get back to base, you _definitely_ have some explaining to do."

Such as 'why are you all women except for the Archon?' and 'why does a reptilian species have mammaries?' But MacAuley decided that asking the knife-wielding Viper would not end well for him, so he opted to save those pressing issues for another time.

* * *

Velvet looked around at her three companions as they sat around a small campfire on the cliff's ridge. She was a little sad when Coco asked her to pair up with Fox for the training exercise, but Velvet didn't dare make that sentiment known to her teammate. Fox was a wonderful friend, and she couldn't imagine hurting his feelings just because she would rather be working with her partner. The other two members of their group, a Reaper who called herself Nieve and her Viper companion named Rossal, stared at them from across the fire's glow.

As far as Velvet could tell, Fox was completely unfazed by the notion of sitting in the Grimm-infested wilderness after dark with a pair of strangers While Velvet trusted Annette's conclusion that these Reapers weren't hostile, she still couldn't shake the fear settling in her gut from the present situation.

A fear that, evidently, had not escaped the notice of her hosts.

"Do not shy away from the darkness, little one." Nieve said, "Though the shadows may hide your enemies, it is capable of hiding your allies with equal efficacy."

Right. Velvet recalled an earlier talk with Nieve where she explained that the Reapers draw much of their power from the dark. The woman seemed to enjoy injecting a degree of mysticism in her answers to Velvet's questions, so the huntress wasn't exactly certain what was fact and what was fiction.

"And besides," Fox added, "I thought you could see just fine in the dark."

"It's still spooky…" Velvet mumbled, fully aware of how lame she sounded.

Rossal hissed, and Nieve nodded in agreement at whatever the Viper just said.

"Perhaps a demonstration of the Shadow's Gift will help you understand why you should welcome the dark rather than dread it."

Fox cracked his neck, "It's about time. I was starting to get bored over here."

"Fox!" Velvet whispered, "Don't be rude!"

The Reaper ignored the remark, put her mask on, and pulled a familiar gadget out from one of her pockets. Velvet recognized it as the 'skulljack' device that she used earlier with Fox when the team had gone hunting some Grimm earlier in the day.

" _Contrary to what you might think,_ " Nieve started as she strapped the skulljack to her wrist. Her voice had become slightly distorted by the mask, " _There was a purpose to our efforts today that go beyond simply thinning the herd. Long ago, the Archon discovered that there is more to the Grimm than mindless monsters that seek to destroy life. There is power in their essence. Power that he learned to extract._ "

The last joint on the bracelet snapped into place, though Velvet noticed that Nieve didn't extend the blades like before as the dull-green eye lights in her mask remained locked on Fox. " _Power that he taught us how to wield._ "

Before her very eyes, Velvet watched as the Reaper just… evaporated. The young huntress let out a small gasp, looking around fervently for a human-shaped figure, but only catching a glimpse of pale smoke where Nieve once stood. Even Fox looked unnerved by the party trick, prompting him to jump up from his seat at the fire.

"Where'd she go?" He asked, weapon at the ready. After a split-second pause, "And where did _she_ go?!"

It took Velvet a moment to realize what her teammate meant before she noticed that Rossal had vanished as well. She was so caught up with Nieve's disappearance that she didn't even think to keep track of the Viper. She strained her ears for any sign of either of their hosts, but heard nothing.

"Can't you sense them?" Velvet asked, her voice only a few degrees away from a whimper, "You've always been the best at detecting Aura."

Fox shook his head, "Even if they were trying to suppress it to keep themselves hidden, that's never stopped me before. It's like they're not even here."

" _Except we-_ "

" _FUCKING HELL!_ " Velvet had never moved so fast in her life as she did when she heard Nieve's voice drifting behind her from the trees. She didn't know when she summoned the hard light Alloy Cannon from her camera bank, but the shotgun was aimed squarely at the rustling trees before a small voice in the back of Velvet's head reminded her that these were supposed to be allies.

Despite the severity of the situation, Fox couldn't help but to start laughing.

"Oh, Coco's gonna wish she was here for Baby's First F-Bomb." He said, wiping tears from his eyes, "Alright you smug jackasses. You've made your point. Why don't you get back over here so you can show us how to do it."

The hair on the back of Velvet's neck stood on end as she felt a chilling breeze brush past her before she heard Nieve speaking from the other side of the fire pit, " _That is not as easy as you might think. From what we understand of Aura, it is the projection of the Soul's Will. This power is drawn from the antithesis of your energy._ "

The Viper appeared next to her partner and nodded with a hiss. " _Rossal recalls a a story from the Archon when he brought a huntsman into the fold and tried to bestow upon him the Gift of Shadow._ " Nieve took off her mask and sighed, "It did not go well, or so I'm told."

"So what's the point of showing us this?" Velvet asked. Her heart rate had almost returned to normal now, and so the curious part of her brain was once again at the helm.

"Your Central Officer wishes us to be allies, does he not?" Nieve asked, translating for Rossal, "It is important to know the strengths and abilities of those who have your back."

It was a fair point. Still, Velvet couldn't help but be a little disappointed that she wouldn't be able to add the shadow magic of these Reapers to her bag of tricks. Given the nature of her weapon and semblance, Velvet prided herself on her flexibility in combat. The more options she had at her disposal, the more useful she became to her team.

Fox knelt down, flipped one of his blades forward, and used it to stoke the fire. "What about XCOM's operatives? Aside from Annette, none of them have an Aura."

Nieve raised an eyebrow. "Oh?"

"You didn't know?" Velvet asked. She noticed that even Rossal looked surprised, "They're not from Remnant apparently. They all have souls, of course, but no Aura. Other than guns, they do have something they call psionics that some of them use. It sounds sort of similar to our Aura, but it's definitely different."

Nieve grew quiet for a minute while her partner hissed in a somber tone. Eventually, the Reaper nodded.

"Perhaps the Archon is still considering how he wishes to proceed with that information. I am certain that your Bradford informed him of the nature of XCOM's operatives. There is little point in flowing that information down to us until a decision has been reached."

"So wait." Fox said, suddenly realizing something, "How are _you_ guys able to use this power? It makes sense for XCOM's operatives to not have an Aura, since they're not from Remnant. But the Reapers are."

Nieve smiled, though Velvet sensed a mild hint of sadness in the expression, "It is an… irreversible choice that all Reapers must make. We still have our souls, but they must be degraded in order to allow us to use the soulless power granted by the Grimm."

"That sounds horrible." Velvet whispered.

The Reaper studied her gauntlet, as if she were contemplating the corrupted power contained within,"It is a necessary evil, as we would not have survived unseen for this long were it not for the Gift. Our faith in the Archon and his vision helps us keep a firm hold on our humanity and prevents us from becoming lost to the darkness."

Putting all their faith in their leader sounded like a cult to Velvet, but she didn't want to judge them prematurely. After all, the Vipers and Reapers kept to themselves and only attacked those that encroached on their land. Rossal and Nieve told them the story earlier in the day of when the White Fang tried to set up shop in the ruins of Mountain Glenn. The Reapers watched from a distance, determined that the invading force was a bunch of incompetent buffoons completely unaware of the existence of the Viper enclave, and elected to simply withdraw to the deeper levels of their compound to wait out the occupation.

A White Fang goon or two would, on one occasion or another, wander too far into the tunnels for their own good, and the Reapers would have no choice but to kidnap them and make their disappearance seem like a Grimm murder. The faunus could never return to the outside world, as the risk was too great of them revealing the Vipers' secret. However, rather than murder the interlopers to be assured of their silence, the Archon made an effort to integrate them into the enclave's society. In Velvet's opinion, the world needed more mercy like that shown by the Archon.

… Looking back on that story for a second time, it _still_ sounded sort of like a cult, but at least this one didn't seem destructive or pervasive like others Velvet had heard about. These guys tried to keep themselves hidden away from society.

"So you wish for us to learn what you are capable of, right?" Velvet asked, "Aside from dissolving into the shadows, what else can you do with the Gift?"

Nieve nodded at Fox, "I believe Alistair has already discovered our ability to hide ourselves in almost every sense of the word. At the same time, very few enemies are able to hide from our sight."

"Isn't that just because of your goggle tech?" Fox asked.

"Rossal and her kind do not wear goggles." Nieve countered, "Our masks offer us night vision, but the Gift gives us… more."

Velvet noticed Rossal staring intently at the low-burning fire while Nieve talked, and wondered what was going through the Viper's head. The Reaper noticed Velvet's attention and paused her explanation. Fox raised an eyebrow, but Velvet quickly caught on to Rossal's intention. It only took a few seconds before the fire's light to dim despite the fact that the flames remained unchanged.

"The darkness is our ally." Nieve explained, "We respect its power, and it offers us shelter in return."

Still… something seemed off to Velvet. "But wait. Rossal isn't wearing one of those bracelet things. How is she able to do that?"

Rossal hissed, and Nieve translated, "She is of the Archon's bloodline, as are all Vipers. His power lies within their veins, latent until he teaches them the Gift. For humans and faunus, the power requires us to use a focus… a crutch."

'For humans and faunus,' she said. Velvet had been trying to covertly determine whether or not the Vipers were an extreme variant of faunus, but Nieve's words all but confirmed her suspicions that they are something else. They certainly didn't smell like any faunus Velvet had ever met, and her visits to Menagerie had given her plenty of opportunity to come into contact with just about every kind that Remnant had to offer.

"So it sounds like your best defense is to not get caught." Fox assessed, "If you end up in an old-fashioned firefight, you don't have Aura to help you shrug off the hits and survive."

Nieve nodded. "Our ability to alpha strike with a coordinated ambush has never let us down, but that's partly because nobody but the Grimm wander this way on a regular basis. Before the White Fang, and before the doomed efforts of Mountain Glenn, the Archon would encounter the occasional wanderers from Vale, but the geography of this area is well-suited to keeping us hidden. If your Bradford is as talented as they say, I should hope that he finds a use for us that plays to our strengths."

"Even if he doesn't do so right away, he is a very flexible commander." Velvet assured her host, "All it would take is for the Archon or one of you to make your case, and I'm sure he will follow your advice."

"If that is the case, then the Archon is wise to trust him." Nieve answered, "But for now… let us continue our hunt so that you can familiarize yourself a little more with how the Reapers operate."

Velvet saw the woman smirk just before the mask clicked into place. " _Perhaps you will learn to suppress the urge to scream if you see us dissolve into shadows enough times._ "

Velvet tried to suppress her embarrassed blush as she and a snickering Fox followed Nieve and Rossal into the woods.

* * *

Vahlen stood at the table, waiting with Elena and the Archon for their patient to arrive. She and Bradford agreed to wait a few days before bringing up their idea to the Viper King. Asking to use the surgery equipment would likely be no small favor, so they wanted to allow the relationship between XCOM and the Reapers to solidify some more before mentioning anything. The Archon was gracious, as usual, when Vahlen did get around to making the request. He even offered to accompany Vahlen down to the lab early so that she could have an opportunity to familiarize herself with the equipment before bringing in the patient.

Which is where the good Doctor found herself presently. The trio arrived in the medical bay an hour and a half ago, and Vahlen wasted no time before she got to work looking over all the tools and equipment she would have at her disposal. She had only briefly scanned the room when she first found it with Bradford, so she needed to work quickly and efficiently with the time she had available before showtime.

A lot of the technology was, thankfully, very similar to the salvage XCOM's teams had recovered from downed UFO's back on Earth. As she noted to the Central Officer, however, the hardware standing before her was very clearly a combination of two separate alien artifacts, which was something Vahlen had never seen during the Long War.

"It's ingenious, though…" She muttered as she finished her gross examination of the tech, "Using the stabilizing elements of the stasis tank to ensure the operation sites aren't aggravated during recovery."

Elena watched as Vahlen moved around the device, scribbling notes and playing with the various toggles.

"Our Archon is wise in many things," she said, "But he knows regrettably little about some of the technology we keep locked away in here. We do have need for the restorative properties of this table, upon rare occasions, but our capabilities do not go beyond using the Life Fluid to enhance the natural healing process. What you are describing sounds far more… extreme."

That was unfortunate. Vahlen had hoped that the Archon would be able to help her learn how to use the surgery table. Perhaps it would be best to run an initial 'live' test with the patient inside to learn the basic function of the table that Elena was describing, and perhaps to see what sort of biometrics it was capable of reading. An hour and a half would not be enough time to fully learn the limits of her equipment to perform an extensive surgery.

But Elena's comment about this Life Fluid intrigued her.

"What do you mean by Life Fluid?" Vahlen asked.

The Archon nodded at Elena, who stepped around the table and set to work removing a panel at its base while she explained, "It is a powerful, but unfortunately limited, resource we possess. It is what gives the table its potency, and why we only use it in dire situations."

Vahlen knelt down next to the Reaper to watch as she unhooked hoses and removed even more panelling in order to get to an arm-sized canister locked in place beneath the table.

"The Archon pondered your request at length before granting tentative permission." Elena continued, "He suspects that it will consume a significant amount of the Life Fluid that we have left, which is why he wishes to-" She grunted as she pulled the canister free, "Assess the patient before the operation commences."

The visual of the canister outweighed any opinions she had about the Archon's (admittedly reasonable) demands. While she had already noted multiple differences between the technology on this Harvester and the ones from the Long War…

"That's meld…" She whispered.

She'd recognize that fluid _anywhere_.

Elena raised an eyebrow and glanced down at the canister with its glowing contents. The Archon, Vahlen noticed, looked impassive as ever. "You're familiar with the Life Fluid?"

The Chief Scientist nodded and stepped forward to get a closer look. She'd have to get some of the substance under a microscope to be absolutely certain, but nothing she'd ever encountered glowed like MELD did. Suddenly, she understood why the Archon was so hesitant to make use of the surgery table.

But if anything had even a remote chance of helping Vahlen's friend? This was it.

* * *

Pyrrha idly watched the Vipers and Reapers looking her way as Bradford pushed her wheelchair down the snaking hallways of the underground complex. Neither the human nor the serpentine faces showed any sign of emotion, so Pyrrha couldn't tell if they looked on with pity, curiosity, or any other emotion. Either way, Pyrrha didn't exactly have the energy to do anything more but respond in kind. Even having Jaune walking at her side, his hand on her shoulder, didn't do much to lift her spirits.

She wanted to be excited. She _wanted_ to be optimistic that whatever Doctor Vahlen had discovered was the key to her recovery. But she was terrified that the Chief Scientist might be wrong, and that she would be getting her hopes up only to have them mercilessly dashed.

Still, the fact that she mattered enough to warrant the attention of both Vahlen and Tygan made Pyrrha feel happy. And Bradford's insistence that he push the wheelchair reminded her of Vahlen's story about the Pope. Even when there was likely a million other things that the Central Officer could (and probably should) be doing right now, he decided that she was his number one priority. And no matter how much the darker side of her inner dialogue might try to keep her down, that made Pyrrha happy.

"Y'know," Jaune said, breaking his partner from her thoughts, "This has got me thinking… when was the last time you left the Avenger?"

"Never?" Pyrrha answered. She had been horrified when Jaune once suggested he take her into town while the Avenger was stuck on Patch. The last thing she wanted was for all these strangers to feel sorry for her, to witness the fall of the Invincible Girl.

She knew that the tone of her answer wasn't lost on Jaune, and yet he persisted. "Still, I think outings like this would be a nice change of pace. We could have a picnic in the forest, or I could take you to see the sunset somewhere…"

"That sounds… nice." Pyrrha said. The hallways eventually grew tighter, and the onlookers disappeared. Their Reaper escort let them through one security checkpoint after another, and Jaune continued his stream of banter in an effort to keep Pyrrha's spirits up.

"So I think Bradford is torn between heading to Atlas next to link back up with Weiss's group or heading to Menagerie to help Blake establish an alliance with her parents. We also might need to have a group double-back and check with the operatives we left in Vale. I have no idea how they're doing after the broadcast, so they might be in need of some support."

Pyrrha's response was a little more monotone than she intended. "Lots of things to do, and not enough people to do them."

"You'll be back out there one day, Pyr." Jaune said, and Pyrrha saw him reach down to give her hand a squeeze, "Nothing keeps you down for long. This is no different."

"I've been stuck like this for almost two months, Jaune."

"He's right, you know." Bradford said from behind, "Even if you're resigned to your fate at the moment, it'll be a cold day in hell when Jaune is. When _I_ am. You're getting out of this wheelchair, one way or another."

"I'd listen to the Central Officer," Tygan added, apparently deciding to join in on the pep rally, "He stopped an alien invasion, after all."

"We're here." The Reaper stated. A heavy set of double doors was already opened, and Pyrrha raised an eyebrow at what she saw inside.

"You weren't kidding about the alien tech." She said.

"I wasn't." Bradford agreed.

He wheeled her through the main room, down another corridor, and into a smaller (though very well-lit) entryway. Pyrrha saw Vahlen standing at a strange table with another Reaper and a Viper that the huntress could only assume was the 'Archon' she'd heard so much about. The Viper turned to look at the newcomers and immediately focused on Pyrrha. His gaze was intense, and Pyrrha was sure she would have tried to shift away from it if she wasn't presently a prisoner of her own body.

She watched as the Archon moved across the room until he stood over her chair-bound figure. He looked up (presumably at Bradford standing behind Pyrrha), and hissed quietly.

"He is asking your permission to sense Sergeant Nikos." The Reaper translated.

Annette talked to Pyrrha about this before they came here. Apparently the Archon had done something similar with her, and the Major described it as 'vaguely Psionic, yet not.' The process wasn't painful, though, so Pyrrha didn't really care either way what the Viper wanted out of it.

"He's free to start at any time."

The Archon reached down, and Pyrrha felt a weird sensation almost as soon as he touched her. It didn't feel like he was 'in her head' or anything like that. If anything, it was a more intense version of how she felt when he was staring at her. Pyrrha noted, however, a distinct lack of malicious energy in the 'sensing.' Her skin didn't crawl, and she didn't have a strong desire for the Archon to stop. If anything, the contact felt sort of invigorating, as if the Viper was lending her mental strength, or something of that nature.

But how was that related to sensing her?

The Archon removed his hand, moved back, and nodded.

"He has determined that she is worthy of the Life Fluid." The Reaper explained.

Oh good, Pyrrha passed a test she wasn't even aware she'd been taking. A twinge of annoyance crossed her mind. And yet, given the reverence in the Reaper's voice when she used the term 'Life Fluid,' Pyrrha guessed that part of this operation was going to involve something valuable to the Archon.

Bradford wheeled Pyrrha over to the center of the room, and Jaune helped him hoist her out of the chair and onto the table while Dr. Vahlen watched It only took a few moments before Pyrrha's field of view consisted of the bright overhead light and a gaggle of faces peering down at her.

"This will be a trial run, Sergeant Nikos." Vahlen said, "I want to get a better understanding of this device, and so our host will be demonstrating its basic operation. From there, I will try to get a better grasp of some of its more complex capabilities, but I won't be putting you under the knife until I have more confidence in how the table operates."

"You'll have two of Earth's brightest minds keeping watch over you and working to develop a solution to our problem." Bradford added, and Pyrrha was reminded once more why he was XCOM's Central Officer; his confidence was infectious.

Everyone stepped away from the table so that the doctors could get started. Except for Jaune.

"I'll be here for the whole thing, Pyr." He said, and the smile in his eyes made Pyrrha's heart flutter, "Just remember that, okay?"

"Thank you, Jaune." She muttered as Jaune stepped back, "Thank you, everyone."

Vahlen came back into view with a breather mask, slipped it over Pyrrha's mouth, and asked her to count to ten as the world gently faded to black.

"One… Two… Th-threeee… Ffffoooouuuu….."


	32. Infiltrate

A/N:So it looks like some people interpreted the end of the last chapter as a foreboding cliffhanger that indicates Pyrrha's going to be in trouble when she wakes up. I apologize for the confusion, and that wasn't my intention. I'll just tell you right now that she's going to be fine after she comes out of surgery. Well, as fine as someone can be when they're paralyzed from the neck down. But at least she's not going to get worse.

As for this chapter? This chapter more than most has been a labor of love with several fantastic people on the Discord. From major section suggestions to correction of grammatical mistakes, I'm incredibly pleased with the final product of the process. Enjoy.

* * *

"Hello, and welcome to the evening report with Lisa Lavender. We are joined by a very special guest tonight: none other than the Autumn Maiden, Cinder Fall herself."

Roman's ears perked up from where he sat in the corner of his cell. The guards posted in the brig would often watch whatever stupid drivel was airing on the CCTS, but for once… for once he was interested in listening in. He didn't dare get up from his bed, though. Wouldn't want the idiots to think he actually cared. While his companion had the luxury of using her illusions to safely park herself by the video screen, audio would have to suffice for poor old Roman.

"Thank you for coming on to speak with us and share your thoughts on the troubles currently facing the four kingdoms."

"It is my _absolute_ pleasure, Miss Lavender." Oh yes, that was definitely her, "After all the hardships they've endured, the people of Remnant deserve to know the truth."

"... Yes." The reporter acknowledged, "I think we can all agree that the truth has been a tricky thing to sort out, especially of late. Which is why we're so glad to have you here, Miss Fall. Getting multiple perspectives on current events is the first step towards building an informed opinion."

"Of course it is." Cinder affirmed. Roman silently chuckled, knowing well that his former boss wasn't agreeing with her host, merely playing with such a simple mind. "And I'm just _dying_ to hear the other point of view."

Roman didn't need a video screen to feel the discomfort in the newsroom.

And yet, the reporter heroically pressed on, "Well, let's start with yours first. From what we've seen in the short time since you made your announcement, you've been hard at work trying to help the people of Vale."

"I fully intend to lend my aid and inspiration to citizens of all the Kingdoms." Cinder answered. Roman imagined she was likely crossing those gorgeous legs right now, which not only made her desirable, but redirected attention from her eyes which almost certainly betrayed her smug satisfaction, "But I think it's a universally accepted truth by now that the people of Vale are in dire straits. Even after almost two months, the so-called huntsmen have done almost nothing to remedy their suffering."

"The Grimm have kept the huntsmen busy-"

"Then why did it only take me two days to do what they have failed to accomplish in weeks: securing the wall?" Cinder accused, "Why are my agents the first to establish safe routes between outposts as they work to make the city habitable again?"

"I…"

Cinder sighed deeply. Her breathe oozed with sorrow. "I apologize. You've all looked up to the huntsmen for so long. So did I, in my youthful naivete. Even knowing what I know now, the pain is _still_ sharp. When I watch those who have power to help the people they've sworn to protect choose instead _not_ to use it to the fullest extent, and instead use that power to elevate only themselves? It makes me weep. But citizens of Vale no longer need to pin their hopes on the huntsmen. My contacts in Atlas tell me that the Kingdom's government is already planning a gesture of good faith and sending supplies and manpower to help us restore Vale to a state of safety, freedom, and prosperity."

"Gimme a fuckin' break…" One of the guards groaned, "Who the fuck does she think she's fooling?"

Roman smirked. They would learn soon enough.

The reporter seemed to have regained her composure. "That is very generous of them, but isn't Atlas concerned about the appearance of such an action? Some might see it as a hostile takeover of their homeland rather than a selfless act of assistance."

"Then I pity those people and their inability to set aside their prejudice to allow us to make their lives better." Cinder said, her tone slightly biting. "Every man, woman, and child on Remnant deserves to feel safe, deserves to _be_ safe. I will not let the feelings of a close-minded minority stop me from uplifting the masses. In my mind, these agitators are only marginally better than the terrorists known as XCOM."

"Let's talk about XCOM." Lisa said. "You seem to have a very strong opinion of a group that, by many accounts, was pivotal in saving countless lives during the Battle for Vale."

Oh, this should be good.

"Why don't I start with a question?" Cinder asked, "Is it really commendable to 'save countless lives' when countless more were lost to events that you were directly responsible for?"

"That is an incredible accusation. Do you have any evidence to support it?"

Roman could almost hear the grin spreading across Cinder's face as she said, "I'm glad you asked, Lisa. Because as it turns out, I do-"

The jail guards were not amused. "... the fuck?"

Roman could barely suppress a malicious giggle.

"... Or have you already forgotten about the file I displayed in my first message to Remnant? If you would be so kind as to lend me your scroll..."

This part of the plan was new to Roman, but he didn't doubt for a second that it had been concocted by the crazy bitch Cinder worked for. From what he'd heard, she _loved_ working on a need-to-know basis, and given some of the stories that trickled down from those who met her? Roman really didn't mind not needing to know.

"Miss Lavender, you now hold in your hands the entirety of the XCOM data injected into Amity's systems. Believe me when I say that much of the contents is… disturbing."

"Indeed…" The reporter's voice was one of quiet shock, and Roman could only imagine what kind of scandalous 'evidence' she was scrolling through on her device right about now.

"Hey Volt, I don't think she's bluffing anymore…"

"You're right. Now she's fucking _lying_."

"So what are we going to do about it?"

"What can we do about it? We're stuck here until we get the engine issue sorted out. Just gotta hope that our covert operatives are out there fighting the good fight in XCOM's name so we don't have the entire fucking planet turned against us."

Oh, it was too late for that, fools, Roman mentally gloated. It wouldn't be long before every last one of these pathetic XCOM mongrels were hunted down and exterminated like the vermin they were! Roman hoped he'd be allowed a front row seat when that happened, of course.

On the screen, the reporter finished her brief skimming of the evidence and regained her voice. "Let's… let's shelve this topic for now, as it looks like I have some homework to do before I can faithfully report on it to our listeners."

"Of course. It is not my intention to bullrush you into saying something you don't believe on air. Take your time, do your due diligence, I am confident you will reach the same conclusions I did."

"Thank you. Do you have any comments on the bandits,raiders, and other criminal elements that are currently plaguing Vale? While the threat of the Grimm is a greater issue, these criminals are taking advantage of the weakened kingdom to advance their own selfish goals."

"It's despicable." Cinder said with enough venom to make Roman double-take, "These gangsters and thugs are parasites. They only drain society of value, causing chaos and fear, while offering _nothing_ in return. I've heard rumors that XCOM has aligned themselves with one such cartel, and that only deepens my hatred for them."

"Ehhh, fuck you too, lady." One of the operatives called out, hocking a spitwad at the screen. As if that would do anything.

"And what of Roman Torchwick?" Lisa asked. Roman blinked. "Rumor has it that the infamous Valean criminal did some work with-"

"I'm going to stop you right there and point out that your comment hinges on a baseless _rumor_. Perhaps I wasn't clear: criminal elements who refuse to reform and work for the greater good have _no_ place the world I envision. Roman Torchwick's exploits demonstrate that he is corrupt to the core, and I would throw him behind bars - _where he belongs_ \- the moment I got my hands on him."

Roman's skin began to crawl as the reporter started to wrap up the interview. The operatives looked away from the screen and slowly turned around to cast an amused glance at their prisoner.

"Looks like you've been sold out, Droog," one of his jailors called out. Roman hadn't the faintest idea what that name meant, but they'd called him that on multiple occasions now, "You still sure that a rescue is coming?"

For once in his life, Roman didn't have a witty comeback.

* * *

"It doesn't make sense."

Weiss looked up from her drink to see Winter staring at the wall. The two of them had once again decided to spend some time together in Winter's little hideout so that they might relieve some tension for an hour or two away from the fear of prying eyes.

"No matter how ruthless our father might be, murdering two men with little provocation and without due process is _not_ how he operates," Winter said, her eyes intensely focused on the chipped stones before her."

Weiss had learned to recognize when her sister's thoughts were on a roll, and so she quietly sipped the wine from her glass while Winter tried to parse her next words.

"I've said this before, but … there has been a growing sense of unease and paranoia whenever I spend any extended period of time at Schnee Manor." She broke her gaze away from the wall and glanced over at Weiss, "More than usual, I mean. It's... why I come here more often to escape the discomfort. Tell me I'm not crazy."

"No," Weiss quietly said. "I've noticed the same thing."

Sure, a lot of the security detail at the mansion seemed on edge, but that was always the case, given her father's expectations for something felt different. Off. Perhaps the ordered execution of the two XCOM 'spies' had been a step too far for the staff. Perhaps everyone was starting to wonder if the power, wealth, and responsibility of the SDC was finally starting to erode Jacques Schnee's grip on reality.

Apparently Weiss's train of thought was riding parallel to her sister's.

"The moment Cinder finished her speech, Father apparently ordered my companions captured and had them dragged into the waiting room so he and Whitley could watch me squirm. He wanted to see where my loyalties lie," Weiss said dejectly.

"Remind yourself that faunus die every year from the near-slave labor they endure in the quarries." Winter said, her eyes returning to the wall, "You may be wondering why he would inflict such cruelty upon his own daughter, but think of how he runs his business. When has Father ever shown actual remorse for the lives lost during mining accidents? He'll say a few things on a vetted interview for PR damage control, act like he's taking steps to stop the problem from happening again, but then he replaces the dead workers and everything is business as usual the next day."

Weiss took a sip from her glass and rose from where she sat to join her sister at the wall. "You're right, of course. It just caught me off-guard. It's… been so long since I've been home that I forgot that the only thing he cares about -that he has _ever_ cared about- is money and power."

"So why kill them?" Winter repeated, circling back around to their original conversation, "It doesn't serve either of those two goals."

Weiss pondered, then shrugged. "Maybe he sees ADVENT as an opportunity. If Cinder really is able to back up her claims, then I'm sure Father made some inroads by executing 'those traitors' without question."

"It's a gamble," Winter somberly declared.

It was true. Backing one side of a dispute from the outset was in arguably a gamble, and Weiss knew her father _hated_ to gamble. And yet, despite their candid conversation about Jacque's (lack of) moral scruples, even she couldn't see him knowingly siding with true evil in exchange for a little more power.

"It doesn't make sense…" She muttered, almost without realizing it.

Winter snorted and took a swig from her own glass, "That's what I'm saying."

The two stood in silence, leaning against the table as they stared at wall. While she was sure that Winter was still spinning her wheels trying to square the circle of their father's actions, Weiss reflected on her relationship with her sister. She'd looked up to Winter for as long as she could remember. It felt like she'd spent more effort trying to please Winter than she did Father. And while both would express disappointment in Weiss, it felt deserved when Winter gave it. Jacques would be disappointed whenever Weiss could't meet _his_ standards, whether she was capable of it or not. With Winter, though... she would only express her dissatisfaction when she knew that Weiss could do better.

So Weiss always pushed herself to prove that Winter's trust in her skills wasn't misplaced. Sure, she put on a show for her father that her efforts were meant to "live up to the Schnee name" or whatever, but what really mattered more to her was earning a smile of approval from Winter. Her sister's demand for improvement wasn't borne out of a selfish need to reflect well on the family, but a desire to watch Weiss improve for her own sake. It was after this revelation that Weiss realized she truly loved her sister, and that somehow in her stern way, her sister loved her back.

After her time in XCOM's brutal war, Weiss's insecurities about her own skills had all but vanished. Surviving a planetary struggle for survival and coming out of it a hero tended to have that effect. And yet, despite knowing that the huntress she was today was _leagues_ beyond the Weiss Schnee that first stepped foot on Beacon's grounds, she still felt a deep-seated urge to do right by Winter. The fact that Weiss Schnee, Heiress of the Schnee Dust Company was now Weiss Schnee, Master Sergeant of XCOM only proved that Winter saw more in Weiss than Weiss had seen in herself.

Standing here with Winter, as a fellow huntress who earned enough trust to be allowed into her private sanctuary, meant more to Weiss than Winter probably realized.

"Weiss?"

"Hmm?"

"I'm… concerned about Ironwood's plan."

Evidently, Winter had grown tired of trying to decipher the mysteries of Father Dearest. Weiss didn't blame Winter for her misgivings. The two of them knew, however, that not only was it important to get some insight into Merlot's operations, but backing out now would look suspicious.

"Anything I can do to help?"

Winter sighed, "I… this sounds stupid. Perhaps I'm being paranoid about everything, but I wonder if it would be prudent to have some… contingency plans in place before I go through with the operation."

"That sounds like a wise idea." Weiss answered. It was also something Weiss had experience with, thanks to her work with the covert operatives. Perhaps it was time to formally introduce Winter to Atlas's other surviving member of XCOM.

* * *

Blake flexed her arm nervously. Around her swirled the bright colors and musical sounds of Menagerie's best market, but her eyes were unhappily glued to the gloved fingers she cautiously flexed.

"What's wrong, tall, dark, and sexy?" Yang playfully asked. When Blake didn't answer immediately, Yang tried again more gently. " … Blake?"

"It feels … off,' Blake admitted. She still couldn't take her eyes off her sleeved right arm. "I know it's mechanically identical to the one before…" She didn't finish the sentence, though she did turn to Yang. Her eyes shifted nervously up to her partner's face before she hunched her shoulders and peered back down again in guilt. She tried not to think about Adam, but the distracting nature of the arm served as a reminder of why Yang needed to lend it to her in the first place. Even worse was when that train of thought caused Blake to dwell on all the time lost when she shunned her parents only to devote herself to someone she eventually had to slay herself.

"I get it," Yang said with the rare tenderness she'd come to reserve for Blake. "It's not the same. Heh, it's funny that we've grown so attached to specific metal limbs, am I right? But … like I said before, I think it'll help your mom and dad deal with it, you know?" Yang gently emphasized her point by lifting her right arm, which was hidden by her jacket. She wiggled the gloved fingers, which if someone looked closely were slimmer than what was normal for humans.

Blake nodded. She couldn't bring her eyes up to look at her partner, but she knew Yang was right.. Her partner approached her on the last night of the (thankfully uneventful) boat ride to Menagerie and made the offer to lend Blake the arm. Vahlen had rigged up an Atlesian Knight's arm as a crude interim replacement, but Yang pointed out that Blake's parents might be a little less shocked by the news if they first laid eyes on a daughter that wasn't rocking a Terminator aesthetic.

"C'mon, it'll be fine." Yang said, sensing her partner's unease, "I mean, sure you haven't seen your parents in a long time-"

"Years." Blake corrected.

Yang shrugged, "So what? You think that they'll take one look at you and tell you to get lost?"

Blake's words came out as a near-unintelligible mumble, "I don't know…"

A pair of hands grabbed Blake firmly by the shoulders, and she looked up to see Yang staring intensely at her. Blake could count on one hand the number of times she'd seen that look, and it startled her slightly to see Yang wearing it now.

"Blake Belladonna." Yang said, "You are an amazing fighter, amazing woman, amazing friend, and -I assume- an amazing daughter. If your parents are _anything_ like you, then I know that they feel the same way."

"But I ran away from home!" Blake argued, "All I left them was a note! I left them for _Adam_!"

Yang raised an eyebrow, "Do you think they'll hold that against you? Or do you think they'll be happy that you made the right choice and decided to come back home?"

The two partners stared at each other for a while, with Blake still firmly stuck in Yang's grasp. Eventually, Blake sighed and offered a slight smile, "I'm glad you've got my back."

"Always."

The two continued their way down the path towards the house of Belladonna. The sandy beaches and stone tiles of the harbor market gave way to a dirt path and tall grass gently bowing to the island's light breeze as Blake led Yang towards the residential district of the coastal town. The living accommodations they passed by varied wildly, from stilted houses to dingy shacks to one or two impressive manors. Regardless of status or wealth, each building carried the artistic flair that Blake knew was a core value of the proud faunus of Menagerie.

"So what are the operatives up to?" Yang asked, "I was sorta-kinda side-tracked by all the sights and sounds." Yang gave her a bright, cheesy grin when Blake glowered at her. "Oh, c'mon! You might be used to it because it's home, but the harbor is to die for! Can you blame me 'cuz I didn't really pay attention to what you were telling them?"

Blake rolled her eyes as they walked past the last couple of houses on the way to their destination. The density of palm trees had increased as they moved further inland, and shade felt nice compared to the hot sun beating down on the island. "I told them to take the afternoon to casually explore and get a general sense of the settlement. Coco did a good job dressing them up as tourists, and gave them some lien to go shopping for some… articles to supplement her growing fashion operation onboard the Avenger."

"It helps to have a well-connected friends with deep pockets, huh," Yang quipped with a cheeky grin.

"With Weiss in Atlas, I admit I was concerned," Blake quietly said. "I'm pleasantly surprised Coco had no problem filling that role, though I suspect it helped that she got an expanded wardrobe out of the deal."

"You can't argue with results," Yang said gleefully. "And look at our styling upgrades!"

Even Blake and Yang got to enjoy the benefits of Coco's artistry. When she saw Blake walking around with the Atlesian Knight's arm, she dragged the two huntresses into the Avenger's newly-established "Dressing & Photography" room to determine suitable additions to their outfits that would help conceal the robotic nature of their arms. She settled on a long-sleeved white jacket for Blake that hung open on the front and had coattails that fell down to her ankles. For Yang, she selected a combination of a biker jacket and gloves that were both long enough to cover the limbs and light enough to not feel out-of-place in a tropical town.

"Makes sense to give the guys some downtime." Yang agreed, "It's not every day you get to play tourist in a sweet island town. They should at least have one day to enjoy themselves before getting down to business. Especially since _we're_ already jumping on that."

The duo reached the front of the big house, which meant that Blake had run out of time to mentally delay what came next. She stared at the heavy door knocker for a few seconds, let out a steadying breath, and used the giant ring to gently tap the wood frame.

Yang let out a low whistle while Blake stepped back to wait for someone to answer.

"Think your parents will like me?"

"So long as you don't make an idiot of yourself? Probably."

"So don't be like Sun?"

"Yeah… don't be like Sun," Blake deadpanned.

After a few tense moments of waiting, the door cracked open and Blake instantly recognized the face of her mother peering through the opening to see who could be showing up at her doorstep. Kali Belladonna's eyes grew wide when she realized who had decided to pay her a visit. She breathed her daughter's name before rushing out to crush her in a hug.

Blake caught the the familiar scent of her mother's favorite perfume, and it unlocked a deep, almost primal memory that Blake had nearly forgotten. Finally, it hit her that she was home.

"... Hi, mom."

Kali didn't answer, except to squeeze her daughter even tighter. A few moments later, however…

"It feels like you're wearing armor under your clothes." Her mother commented, stepping back to size up her daughter. Joy warred with confusion on her mother's face., "Are you all right?"

Blake nodded, trying to force a smile, "I'm fine, mom. We, uh… have a lot to talk about, though."

"I'll say." Kali said. A glance out the corner of her eye reminded Kali that Blake didn't come alone, and she turned to look at Yang with an apologetic grin, "I'm so sorry! Where are my manners? I'm Kali Belladonna. And you are…?"

"Yang Xiao Long." Yang answered, offering her hand for a shake. Kali brushed it aside and pulled her into a hug.

"A handshake is far too formal for the young lady that brought my baby back to me." Kali said, she let go and gestured for her two guests to follow her inside. Yang gave Blake a thumbs-up as they stepped through the doorway after Kali. It didn't escape Blake's notice that her partner used the 'Terminator hand' for the gesture.

"Your father is out at a meeting right now." Kali said as she led them through the spacious foyer and into a cozy waiting room, "But I'm sure he's going to be _ecstatic_ when he sees you. Both of you." She added, glancing back at Yang. The two huntresses took a seat when Kali gestured to a small sofa. Blake watched her mother stop for a moment to simply stare at her guests with a blissful smile.

After a moment of pleasant silence, Kali turned around and moved towards the door. "I'm going to put on a kettle for some tea." she called over her shoulder as she left the room, "It will only be a moment."

Before Blake could even let out a sigh of relief, Kali poked her head back into the room and looked at Yang, "Would you be a dear and make sure she doesn't go anywhere?"

" _Mom!_ "

Yang offered a salute as Blake stared in shock at the empty doorway. It only took Yang a few moments to break the silence.

"I like her."

Blake rolled her eyes and finally allowed herself breathe and take stock of the situation. An elbow found its way into her ribs, and Blake looked over to see her partner smiling back at her.

"So far so good?" Yang asked.

"Yeah… so far so good." Blake admitted, "I'm just worried about when my dad gets home."

"Pffft, I'm not worried. You've got me _and_ your mom now. Us ladies'll stick together." Yang looked up and smirked, "Right Mrs. Belladonna?"

"Absolutely!" Kali answered as she sat down on the couch across from her guests, "If I hear _one rude word_ out of my husband's mouth…"

"I _definitely_ like her." Yang said.

Kali jumped in, clearly eager for the conversation to begin, "So I know we have a lot to talk about, Blake, but I have to ask first: the armor. You said you're okay, and I believe you, but I felt the same thing on Yang." Kali's eyes were gentle, but the look she gave Blake brooked no refusal. "You need to come clean with your mother, my dear."

Blake felt her ears droop as she exchanged a look with Yang. Might as well get the worst news out of the way.

"We… well, _I_ got injured during a fight almost a year ago. Really badly, actually." Her heart twinged when she saw the fear spread across her mother's face, "I was telling you the truth when I said I'm fine, mom. Because I am. Now. But when it happened… the only way to save me was to… uh... "

Blake hesitated, floundering for words that could possibly ease the blow for her mother. She tried to just out and say it, but the words got caught in her throat. When her hesitation lasted for more than a beat, Yang took it upon herself to help out, "To surgically remove her limbs."

Kali's face grew pale, "B-but your arms when you hugged me… they felt… normal."

Blake felt a gentle shove on her back, and she glanced over to see Yang giving her a pointed look before she got the hint to get up and relocate to her mother's couch.

"They're prosthetics, mom." Blake explained as Kali wrapped her arms protectively around her daughter, "Really convincing ones, which makes it easier to not stand out in public. But they are definitely robotic."

A few tears ran down Kali's face as she held her baby girl. It only took a few seconds before something clicked in her mind, however, and she looked up. "Then… Yang…" She cast a pained glance at the other huntress, and the anguish grew on her face once more when Yang nodded, "You…?"

"If you're thinking I got injured like Blake did," Yang said, dusting off her pants as she stood up to join Kali on the couch, "Then no."

"But…?"

Yang silenced her host with a comforting hand on Kali's, "Blake is my partner, Miss Belladonna. I once told her that, while I had no idea what that means to her, to _me_ it meant I had no intention of letting her go through such a life-changing transformation without having someone be there to shoulder the burden with her."

With a tug, Yang pulled off one of her leather gloves to reveal the metallic sheen of the Atlesian Knight limb she wore. "And I wasn't about to trust that to somebody else."

The room fell silent as Blake and Yang gave Kali some time to process everything. Yang excused herself to check on the water so that mother and daughter could be alone for a minute.

The two of them spent that minute in silence, and Blake watched as a slideshow of expressions crossed over her mother's face while her brain worked overtime to process all the information and the ramifications they entailed. Confusion, anger, horror, pity, relief, sadness, rage… Blake could almost imagine herself going with Kali Belladonna on her journey of grief and doubt as she tried to imagine what unspeakable suffering her daughter had to go through, and how she was helpless to ease the pain.

It reminded Blake of when she watched Yang and Tai go through the same thing.

"I just thought of something," Kali whispered, her eyebrows furrowed as she finally broke her silence, "You said this happened almost a year ago? And that Yang went through the surgery with you?"

Blake had a feeling she knew where this was going, "Yes, mom."

"But I saw your matches during the tournament." Kali continued, "You were introduced as a freshman team. Did you know each other from before you enrolled?"

Yep. "The answer to that is a lot more complicated than you think, mom. And it's an answer I want dad to hear, too. If you don't mind waiting until he gets home, we'll tell both of you everything."

Kali nodded. "Can you at least… show me? I… I think I want to see the extent of the damage. And I don't want to wait."

"Of course."

Yang came back in with the kettle and some cups on a tray and set it down in front of the couch.

"I'll be honest, I'm more of an instant coffee gal than anything, so I'm not really sure when you put the leafy thingies in the kettle thingy to make the water taste like not-water." Yang grinned sheepishly as a look of disbelief passed over Kali's face, "I'll, uh… I'll leave the rest of the preparations to you."

Kali glanced at Blake, eyebrow raised, "You've known her for _how long_ , and you haven't shown her how to prepare tea?"

Blake felt her ears droop again.

* * *

Ghira heaved a sigh as he stepped up to the front door of his home. Meeting with Sienna was always a mentally taxing feat, but he'd noticed that she'd become even more agitated as of late. Sure, the attack on Vale had put everyone on edge, but Khan seemed to be taking it more personally than most. Maybe she was bracing for the worst-case (and, if Ghira was being honest, the most likely) scenario where everyone assumed that the White Fang was at fault, and she was stressing herself out in anticipation for the uphill battle that was likely to come.

However, the arrival of Cinder Fall, her call to action, and her open acceptance of faunus and the White Fang was a stroke of good fortune that nobody could have anticipated. If Sienna played her cards right, there might be a non-violent way forward for the faunus after all.

And yet, somehow Ghira doubted that his successor would be willing to walk that path so easily. Perhaps it was time for him to step up his role in the organization and try to help the White Fang do the right thing-

Ghira froze as his ears picked up voices inside the house. He recognized Kali's voice instantly. And while she didn't sound distressed, the other voice, another woman's, was one he'd never heard before. His wife was a generally social woman, but Ghira knew that their house was her sanctuary. The two of them frequently attended functions and made public appearances as appropriate, but nobody that wasn't a close friend of the Belladonnas was allowed inside their residence.

And Ghira knew all of Kali's friends.

He gently put his portfolio down on a table by the door, and stalked the hallway as quietly as he could towards the sound of idle chatter.

"It's actually _quite_ comfortable once you get past the initial weirdness." The stranger said, "Of course, my doofus-of-a-partner flatly refused to join me in The Way of the Potato."

His wife giggled just as Ghira was reaching for the door handle to the sitting room, "And why is that, Blake?"

Ghira Belladonna, proud figurehead of the White Fang and Chieftain of Menagerie, felt his heart flutter and the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end at the sound of a name he hadn't heard in years. The voice he heard next sent icy flames through his veins.

"It just isn't my thing, I guess."

Ghira could be left in isolation for a million years, and he would still be able to recognize his daughter's voice in a cacophonous courtyard from the moment she opened her mouth. He flung the door open, and was greeted with a shriek from his wife, a startled look from Blake, and a choking sound from the mysterious stranger whose back was turned to the door.

The sight that greeted Ghira was… not what he expected. While he _did_ expect to see his daughter, having finally come home, he didn't consider that his entrance would give his wife a heart attack and cause her to topple backwards over the arm of the couch and crash unceremoniously to the floor. He also didn't expect, upon closer examination of Blake, to see a very prominent lack of a left arm on her body as she rushed to help her mother.

And as he likewise rushed forward to help his wife, he almost tripped when he noticed that the figure on his couch didn't have _any_ limbs as she continued to spew liquid all over the furniture.

With his attention occupied by the new discovery, and with the sudden commotion causing his adrenaline to spike, Ghira plowed straight into the couch and then sailed through the air over his wife and daughter. He felt the wall groan in protest as it halted his momentum, and the room grew silent for a stunned moment.

The stranger seemed to regain her composure first, "So, uh… Mr. Belladonna, right? Hi, I'm Yang Xiao Long. Blake's partner. I'd, uh… shake your hand, but… well…"

Ghira blinked away the stars clouding his vision and sat up. He looked at Yang, looked at his shocked family, and then back at Yang.

Wait, was she drinking his beer?

 _Not the time, Ghira. Your daughter is here. Say something!_

"... Hi, honey." He said, looking at his wife. Then, to his daughter, "It's… it's nice to see you, my little warrior. How, uhm, how was your day?"

In the blink of an eye, the little black ball that called itself Blake launched itself at Ghira, wrapped an arm around his neck, and buried its head in his chest. He felt her body quake against his and felt silent tears on his chest. His fatherly instincts kicked in. Ghira gently laid his massive hands on his daughters back as he held her in his arms for the first time in years.

"Welcome home, my heart."

* * *

Winter cast a quick glance around the empty street before ducking into a dirty back alley that matched Weiss's instructions. She wasn't sure what kind of significance a stylized "VC" had for XCOM, but her sister told her to look for those letters in the usual array of graffiti one would find in the slums, and they would tell her where to go. No stranger to the seedier parts of Atlas, Winter adjusted her usual 'hoodlum' sweater to make sure her family's recognizable hair remained concealed as she continued her search for the next sign. The vagrants sitting in the alley paid her no mind as she swaggered past, her shoulders hunched and her hands stuffed into the pockets of her attire.

As much as it made sense for covert operatives to use… undesirable locations for meetings away from prying eyes, Winter had to admit that she never quite got over her distaste of the local flora and fauna on her way to this sort of rendezvous. The fact that they reminded her of Qrow made everything that much more unbearable. Even so, her opinions and distaste remained internalized as she maintained her confident walk down the snow-covered corridor.

A couple of children giggled up ahead as they played some sort of ball game in the alley. They reminded Winter that, while Atlas liked to project an image of discipline and wealth to the other kingdoms, one could still find wiry street urchins dressed in grease-stained rags if you bothered to look hard enough. In fact, Atlas's military often depended on the slums as a recruiting ground for the rank-and-file. Winning a fight was easier when you had soldiers who already possessed the will to survive.

Another VC caught Winter's eye, this one hidden in the corner of an artistic mural that gave the Atlesian operative pause. If this mural was made (or commissioned) by the XCOM operatives, they deserved more credit than Winter had previously afforded them. She figured that anyone who viewed themselves as underdogs would likely try to include some sort of 'resistance' motif, a clenched fist fighting off the chains of the oppressor or something of the sort. In Atlas, though, even the lowest of low-lifes detested that kind of imagery, and using it was a surefire way of getting tracked down, beaten half to death, and left in a frozen snowbank somewhere.

Instead, the mural played to Atlas's sense of unity and honor, showing a trio of soldiers in Atlesian uniforms kneeling with guns in hand and a horde of Grimm encroaching from all sides in their sights. A small child looked on in wonder from the safety of their midst. No caption, no sign that this mural was made by someone other than an Atlesian national… the only thing that was even remotely out-of-place were the letters inscribed on the rifle barrels.

And the rifle with "VC" was pointed down towards a cordoned-off tunnel access point.

"Clever…" Winter mused as she slipped past the ropes and quietly descended the stairs. Her sneakers muted the sounds of her footsteps as her eyes adjusted to the even gloomier atmosphere of her new surroundings. Leaning against a column up ahead was a hooded figure who watched as Winter approached. His eyes were concealed by his attire, but the deadpan expression on the lower half of his face didn't tell Winter anything about what sort of guest he might be expecting.

"I am watchful…" The stranger muttered.

"... And I am confident." Winter answered, recalling what Weiss told her to repeat back once she heard the first phrase.

The hooded figure cracked a grin, "We've been expecting you, Miss Schnee. Follow me."

"Are you Odei?" Winter asked as the two of them began their walk down the tunnel. Old lights struggled to stay on as they lit the pathway forwards. Beyond the general state of disrepair, the musty smell assaulting Winter's nose told her that very little had disturbed this place since it first fell out of use however many years ago.

"Nah. I'm just a kid who believes in what these guys are doing." He pulled down his hoodie to reveal a young man with short, black hair and a dark complexion to match, "You can call me Flynt."

The two walked in silence before Flynt took them through a broken doorway and up a flight of stairs. Winter's vision had finished adjusting to the reduced lighting, and she could see why XCOM had chosen this place as a hideout. Not only was it something that nobody else knew about, the absolute stillness made it impossible to try and tail someone without being spotted. And ever since Odin and Osiris died thanks to Weiss's tail…

"Y'know, I wasn't all that big on bringing a Schnee down here." Flynt said, as he led Winter through yet another door. It didn't escape the Specialist's notice that he pushed a button on the frame as he stepped across the entryway, "In fact, what convinced me to give these dudes a shot was hearing that they pissed your dad off enough to get capped."

Winter winced inwardly at the thought of word getting out that her father ordered the execution of two men without a trial. Perhaps XCOM's operative chose to seek Flynt out (for whatever reason) and the information was shared privately in an effort to recruit him.

"Anyone who pisses off Papa Schnee has to be doing _something_ right, I figured." Flynt continued, "But your sister made a pretty convincing case. I don't think you realize how much she's got your back."

"My sister?" Winter asked, "You mean the one named Weiss _Schnee_?"

"Ah, but see… she's nothing like your bastard father, nor your blue-blooded brother." Flynt said, glancing down with amusement to see Winter slowly balling her fist, "Neither are you, or so she tells us."

Winter's fingernails dug into her palm, and it took every ounce of self-control she had to keep herself from taking a swing at Flynt. Decking this kid would not be a positive start to Winter's relationship with XCOM. Not only that, but she was fairly certain he meant to get a rise out of her with his snide remark, so why give him the satisfaction? With a low sigh, she loosened her grip, reluctantly following her guide in silence.

The two reached a wooden door, boarded shut with rotting lumber. Flynt lightly rapped on the wood, waited a few moments, and looked back at Winter when the lock clicked from within and the door opened.

"After you."

Winter walked into the room to see several occupants in a room that emphasized function over form. There were several beat up chairs (one of which was occupied by Weiss) and a small table, but the most notable objects in the room were several duffel bags of gear and a computer terminal sitting on the floor in the back of the room.

Sitting in a chair across from Weiss was a woman who couldn't be more than a few years older than Winter, and yet she had the unmistakable countenance of someone with the quiet confidence developed after years in the field. Her black hair was cut short, and her narrow eyes looked up from the documents in her lap as she detected the arrival of a newcomer. Her thin frame was relaxed, comfortable as she set aside the papers and rose from her chair The other people in the room carried themselves with more of a gung-ho attitude, but this woman didn't need to prove anything, and she knew it.

Despite the fact that she wore nothing that identified herself as XCOM, Winter was certain: this _had_ to be Odei.

Weiss followed the operative's lead and stood up as soon as she saw Winter step through the door. Unsure of what kind of formalities the operative expected, Winter opted to stay put and let her host make the first move.

"Winter Schnee," the woman said. The others in the room looked curiously at their new guest once they realized who Winter represented. Odei didn't say anything more as she stepped towards the elder Schnee, only stopping once she was a few short paces away. The two locked eyes for a moment before Odei offered a small bow, holding it for several seconds until she returned to her full height with a smile, "Weiss has told me many great things about you. I am Master Sergeant Yuki Furokawa. Or 'Odei,' as I am sure Weiss introduced me."

Odei gestured to her now-unoccupied chair, and Winter took her cue to take a seat. With nothing more than a glance from the operative around the room, the rest of Odei's team immediately stopped staring at XCOM's guest and resumed their previous activities.

"I have been informed that you are in need of my help." The woman commented. Rather than pull up another chair, she simply kneeled at the table and looked from Weiss to Winter,, "As a favor to Weiss, I am happy to do what I can."

"I've already briefed her on your situation." Weiss explained, "We've been going over ideas for the last hour while we waited."

Winter planned to say nothing, to just let Weiss and Odei talk for her and see how much she could get without giving anything in return. When Odei raised an eyebrow at her, however, Winter let out a shaky sigh.

"I have… concerns that going through with this procedure might make me…"

"Compromised." Odei finished, "From what Weiss has told me about Merlot, and from what little I gathered on my own since then, I don't blame you."

"Then why did you show me how to find this place?" Winter asked. The question had been nagging at the back of her mind ever since she met Flynt and she realized that Odei had taken great pains to conceal the location of her hideout, "If I _do_ become compromised, then you won't be safe here."

Odei gestured towards the duffel bags with a smile, "That is why we pack light. But let us imagine how you might become compromised: Case One: it is extremely obvious to you and anyone you know that something has happened. You wouldn't trust yourself, nor would Weiss trust you to keep us a secret. We would not allow you to make further contact with our network.

"Case Two: the compromise is subtle in appearance, and you cannot resist it. Everything would seem normal, but bringing you here would give The Enemy information that we cannot afford to divulge. As such, we would not allow you to make further contact with our network.

"Case Three: the compromise is again subtle in appearance, but you still retain your free will. You suspect that you are compromised, that your every move is being watched. In such a case, you would not want to make further contact with our network.

"Case Four: the compromise is so subtle that you don't even realize that anything is different. However, because of the risk, we would not allow you to make further contact with our network."

If Odei's only plan was to tell her that she was screwed no matter what, Winter was starting to wonder why she'd even bothered to come here.

"So while it saddens me greatly, it seems that I won't be seeing you again for quite some time after you leave today. However, it is vital that you remain in contact with Weiss in all cases except for the first. Whoever might be watching would likely know that the two of you have grown closer, and would suspect that there is something suspicious about Weiss if she suddenly developed a cold shoulder."

Winter mulled over Odei's comments, thinking about the implications of what each scenario would entail. She doubted that Case One would happen, as none of the Atlesian volunteers exhibited any signs of change beyond what was desirable. And if it did happen, Winter would probably be put on a short leash, only let out when Merlot (or whoever he worked for) had a need for her services. It was similarly pointless to worry about Case Two, as Winter would be powerless to do anything to warn Weiss or anyone else.

"The only cases we have any agency over are Three or Four."Winter mused, "And if I don't feel any different, I should assume Case Four and treat it as if it were Case Three."

Odei suddenly grinned. "It's funny. In XCOM, being a Specialist means you didn't kill yourself with your own rifle as a Rookie long enough to get a promotion. Clearly, the rank carries more prestige in Atlas. But yes, that is the same conclusion that we reached."

Winter raised an eyebrow at Weiss, who offered nothing more than a shrug as an explanation for Odei's comment.

"So now that we have the the baseline established," the operative continued, "We should consider contingencies for both cases, starting with a method for tipping off Weiss about which case is the correct one."

Weiss nodded. "The simplest one we thought of would be to have you work the word 'Three' or 'Four' into a sentence when we're having a conversation. That would allow you to easily 'upgrade' the situation from a Four to a Three if something happens since the last time we talk."

"Makes sense." Winter agreed. "What else?"

"Lots else." Odei answered, laying her scroll on the table and pushing it towards Winter, "Do you require extraction from Atlas? Have you discovered a killswitch that prevents you from extracting? Are you in danger? Is _Weiss_ in danger? Is there some critical information that you've discovered? Where can Weiss find it? These are all things you might want to communicate to Weiss without actually saying it. You need to determine a way to do that.

"And then there are the more action-oriented contingencies. What should Weiss do if you become incapacitated? Is there a way for Weiss to break into your secure offices with an extraction team if she knows you are in danger? Does she know all of your safehouses if she needs to find you?"

Winter tabbed through the files on the scroll and was surprised at how much information and planning Odei had come up with, and supposedly in only an hour. Code phrases, action plans, equipment, key locations… a lot of this stuff was right up Winter's alley, but some of the planning was creative enough where even she wouldn't have thought of it.

"Out of respect for the fact that you trust your sister more than you trust XCOM -something that I do not blame you for, mind you- I will leave you two alone to discuss and plan. There is a private room in the back that you may use to ensure that your conversation stays between the two of you."

The three women stood up, and Odei offered Winter another bow.

"It was a pleasure meeting you, Winter, even if the time was short. I hope we will meet again someday, preferably under better circumstances. Until then… Vigilo Confido, my friend."

Ah. So _that's_ what VC means.

* * *

Ghira popped the tab on a can of beer, draped his free arm around the shoulders of his wife, and took a deep draft from the alcohol while the rest of the room's occupants waited patiently for him to go through the motions of settling in. Blake and her friend had gotten to the part of their story where Blake got stabbed in the gut by a flesh-reaving bug when Ghira stopped them, stood up, and said he needed a drink. His wife had pointed out the pot of tea sitting on the table, but he shook his head as he left the room.

In truth, Ghira needed to not be seen by his family and guest as he felt his chest tighten and his vision grow black once the realities of what had happened to his daughter slammed into him like a truck. So many times he'd told Kali not to worry about Blake. Having her go off and explore the world, to find out who she really was, could only be a good thing. "But she could get hurt!" Kali had wailed. "She can take care of herself." Ghira had answered with an air of nonchalance. Learning that his daughter had come closer to death than Ghira ever did, and that her body was permanently transformed from the experience…

Visions of his tearful wife, fretting over their only child, the child that they tried for so long to conceive, raced through his mind. His casual assurances that Blake would be fine were always partly to assure himself that he was making the right decision by not going after her, by not being the embarrassing parent that picked up his kid by the scruff of her neck and marched her back home in abject humiliation. She needed to learn that the world was dangerous, he thought, and that sheltering her would do more harm than good. He'd convinced himself so thoroughly of this, that Kali's concerns started to grate on his nerves as one year turned into two.

And his cavalier attitude, his desire to prioritize proving himself right over the fears of his wife, had almost lost the one thing that Kali cared about more than anything else in the entire fucking world.

"Ghira…"

He looked up, and a distorted, watery image of the love of his life standing patiently in the doorway greeted his eyes. Kali quietly closed the gap between them, wiped away her husband's tears, and put a finger to his lips when he opened his mouth to apologize.

"She's back, Ghira." Kali whispered, "What happened was in the past. It doesn't matter to me. Our baby is back, and that's all I care about."

"I… I didn't know." Ghira croaked, "I couldn't-"

Soft lips pressed against his silenced Ghira's words. Kali pulled away, grabbed a beer from the fridge for her husband, and the two of them returned to the room where Blake and Yang were waiting.

Now that he was fully composed and his brief mental breakdown was taken care of, Ghira was ready for the girls to continue their story. But first...

"Thank you for telling me -us- everything so far," he began as diplomatically as he could with a throat so tight. "Allow me to recap the events so I can… process how this all came together."

Blake and Yang silently nodded.

"You left Adam," he directed carefully to Blake. "You spent two months making preparations, hid your faunus nature, and applied to Beacon." Blake nodded. "In the selection process, you joined up with Yang, her sister Ruby, and Weiss Schnee - _the_ Weiss Schnee- to form your team, RWBY."

Again, Blake nodded in silence like she usually did, though Yang raised a hand to add, "Well, the team-making process is a bit more randomized than that, but you've basically the gist of it, yeah."

"We've caught a few news broadcasts coming out of Vale featuring your team," Kali noted. "Even so, it seems so… unreal you became a partner of the same student team as Weiss Schnee… and the two of you are friends?"

Blake smiled timidly. "Like Yang said, the process was somewhat random… but it's true," she affirmed, and her eyes shown somehow with conviction. "She's actually a very good person, and I'm proud to be her friend, especially after all we've been through."

Ghira blew out another terse breathe. He loved his daughter dearly, but that wouldn't erase years and years of staunch prejudice against the family that was Public Enemy Number One for the faunus. "Continuing on. You completed a semester. You -your team- was involved in the incident known as The Breach?"

Again, Yang and Blake nodded.

"Shortly after, you were on another training assignment, when you -Yang- saw a portal appear. Since you have been searching for your mother, and you knew she had the ability to create similar portals, you jumped in."

Yang had the good grace to blush, embarrassed. She scratched the scalp of her luscious blonde mane. "Er, not my brightest moment, I'll admit."

"You found yourself transported to another _world_ ," Ghira continued, his heart accelerating again. "A world unlike ours, where there are no Grimm, no faunus, no Huntsmen, no _Aura_ , a technology similar and yet nothing like ours, a means to _leave_ their planet, and where the people were waging a desperate war against complete annihilation at the hands of a massive alien force that had laid siege to their planet."

"Er, mostly right," Yang added in, fairly chipper. "Like we said, we found out before long that our Aura wasn't gone, it was suppressed. Bad enough, but we overcame it eventually. The Doc had come up with one-shot Aura modules at the time. Better than nothing, but _damn_ did they sting when you needed a hit."

"The Doctor," Ghira said, rattling his brain to remember it all. "Dr. Vahlen. We'll return to that in a moment. So you managed to convince them to let you join in their fight. You did so for several reasons, including the simple practicality that you did not have the means to return, and your only chance to return was if the defenders, XCOM, proved victorious."

"Yang was right, though," Blake gently said. "They were a people in trouble. How could we turn our backs on them?"

Kali gave them a bittersweet smile. "While I am terrified of what could have happened, and I'll admit it, I'm proud of both of you."

Ghira had to force himself to exhale. "No matter what, your mother is right. It's what Huntsmen should do. And as that is the path you chose for yourself, Blake, you did the right thing."

"Thanks, dad," Blake murmured so softly and with her shoulders hunched tightly, he could have sworn he had imagined it. The hopeful smile in his daughter's eyes told him all he needed to know.

"So continuing on," Ghira said, "you had to start almost from scratch. The commander of XCOM, Bradford, assigned you to a combat unit, Strike Eight. He assigned your sister, Ruby, as the leader, along with a Major Xander Vance as your veteran combat advisor."

The way both Blake and Yang suddenly returned such muted, brokenhearted smiles when he mentioned the name of Xander Vance hinted far more than the two women could have explained in a minute. "We wouldn't be alive without him." Yang quietly said.

"You went on several missions," Ghira continued. "You grew ties with the people there, especially their leaders. An incident on this… Earth encouraged you to step forward with your faunus nature, and in turn they embraced you as an equal, just as you are."

"It was... amazing, dad," Blake said, awe in her voice as she recalled the memory of when she first revealed her true self to XCOM, "But please continue. I know it's a lot."

"Your squad grew. Each of you were promoted to different degrees. Your team was entrusted with a reconnaissance mission to an island village that had lost all contact. There you encountered…"

"Chrysalids," Blake said with a quivering voice. Ghira noticed how tightly she had to swallow. "Creatures of nightmares, not like the Grimm, not as strong as the Grimm, but in many ways worse. They impale you, then…" She trailed off and shook her head.

"Mom, I love you, and I respect your need to know what happened, but… there are some things you don't need to know." Ghira noticed how quickly and easily Yang took Blake's hand as her voice started to quiver, and how readily Blake received the touch.

"The creatures had made a nest there," he managed to say in an effort to move on from what was clearly one of Blake's worst memories. His tongue felt like sandpaper "Like the Lancers, but worse. You set a transponder for an aerial bombardment. The creatures detected you anyway. You were swarmed. You ran for your transport. The newest member of your team laid down his life so you could escape."

"Bolts," Yang whispered reverently.

"And then before you could reach the transport itself, one of these…" He couldn't say it.

"Burst out of corpse of a shark, purposely impaled me through both arms and both legs, and then… impaled me through the stomach," Blake managed to finish for him. She was shivering by this time, her eyes starting to unfocus, Yang's hand firmly on her shoulder. "I had blanked it out at the time, but I can remember it now. Leaning down, its eyes gazing into my soul as it parted its jaws to… o-oh fuck..." She clung to Yang like a lifeline.

Ghira wanted to speak up, to say anything. The shock and the image in his head fettered his mind with the fear of what he almost lost. The image was so brutal, he couldn't speak. Even Kali was silent. She clutched his hands much like Blake was clinging on to Yang.

When Blake's quivering subsided, it was Yang who spoke up. She kept direct contact as she said, "Just trust me when I say you don't want to know all the details. Blake nearly died. We did _everything_ we could to keep her alive. And Vance? He stayed behind just to buy us the time to get out of there." Even though Ghira didn't know this Yang well, he couldn't help but feel pity at the depth of sadness and regret in her eyes. She was a combat veteran now, he could tell.

Yang took a deep breath, then rubbed his daughter's back as she continued. 'Weiss had to hold Ruby down. We used every medkit to keep Blake stable. And when got back, we were all desperate as to why her Aura wasn't working. Turns out, it was the only thing keeping her alive long enough to make it to the Docs table, since it was working overtime to fight back against the monster's poison."

"So let me understand." He said, looking from Blake to Yang, "The only way to prevent your death… was to cut your limbs off?"

Blake hesitated, then nodded. "Unfortunately. The poison flowing through my bloodstream was putting a huge strain on both my body and my weakened Aura. By removing the… ah… _extremities_ , all of the healing efforts could be focused on my vitals.."

"Ruby made the call," Yang told them, stone faced. "She still blames herself,"

"She made the right call," Blake somberly insisted. "I know I was bitter about it for a long time, and I'll admit I wish I had my original arms and legs, but Ruby did the right thing. She gave me a fighting chance to have a life again."

Right. Blake's huntress leader. How old was she again?

"That seems like a pretty huge responsibility for someone so young…"

"If there's one thing I learned from our experience, it's that war is _really_ good at aging you." Yang commented, "If my sister had to make that choice three months earlier, there's no way she could have done what she did."

Ghira couldn't stand it any longer. He kept his composure, but the constant discrepancies of time gnawed at his skull. "You keep saying months," he told her. Ghira noticed Kali's eyes were as wide with confusion as his were. "I agree that every detail should be put into its proper place, but none of that makes sense. How can you still refer to months of time when it's only been two months since the Battle of Beacon?"

"Actually, now's a good time to tell you," Yang delicately offered. "After the surgeries, after everything, the whole team was in a bad state. Ruby's mental state was the worst without a doubt, but we were all in a downward spiral. Bradford gave us time, but after a month he realized he needed to do something drastic."

"By this time, XCOM had figured out a way to send text messages to Remnant," Blake said. She picked up Yang's explanation. Her voice still a little shaky, but regained most of her composure. "The portal was only one-way at the time, but they could open it. They didn't tell us, but they contacted team JNPR and told them how to find the portal to Earth."

"They came anyway,"Ghira said, his voice touched with quiet awe. "Those are some true friends."

"Yeah, they are," Yang admitted while she awkwardly brushed her hair again. Ghira suspected Yang and Blake had left out something, but there was far too much to take in to question now. "And that's when we get to the next level of weirdness. We started to tell them about everything that happened over the last few months, and they tell us it's only been a week."

"...What?!" Ghira blurted out in near tandem with Kali.

"Time is a funny thing when dealing with space-time portals, apparently." Blake nervously said. "It took us a while, but before long we confirmed it. There's a twelve-to-one time dilation between Earth and Remnant, at least at the time. So… to you, we were gone less than a month, but for us…" Blake paused to swallow. "It's been a year."

Ghira blinked, trying to process this. He shifted his gaze back and forth between Blake and Yang, hoping to see them crack under his scrutiny, but he was confronted with blank-faced earnesty.

"So Blake," Kali spoke up in a voice full of apprehension. "Your birthday is in the next few months. It will be …"

"My nineteenth birthday," Blake whispered. In the span of seconds, guilt bloomed all over her face. "Mom… I'm sorry."

Kali rose, immediately crossed the few steps over to Blake, and swept her up into another deep hug. "It doesn't matter," Kali insisted. "You're home now, and we're going to deal with it all one step at a time."

"I think… I think we'll continue on with the rest of your story tomorrow when we can process what we've already learned," Ghira managed. He could tell his eyes were glassy. "The horrors you've suffered…"

Blake held her cybernetic hand up to her face, played with the digits, and Ghira watched at how seamless, how natural the action looked. The tech could easily give Atlas a run for its money.

"A lot of awful stuff happened on Earth, but I don't think any of us would disagree that we're better people for it." Blake maintained even eye contact with her father as she sipped her tea and said, "And it's all thanks to XCOM."

Ghira could see this part of the conversation coming ever since XCOM entered into Blake's story. He suppressed a sigh and asked the question he already knew the answer to. "About XCOM. So this Cinder's claim about how XCOM is a terrorist organization bent on destabilizing Remnant…?"

"Complete horseshit." Yang answered, glowering "Pyrrha Nikos, a friend who fought shoulder-to-shoulder with us on Earth and on Remnant before that, is paralyzed because that lying bitch didn't want her to broadcast a message of hope and assurance to everyone listening on the CCTS."

"She's playing the world for a fool, and people are desperate to believe her." Blake added, "Though, can you really blame them? The kingdoms just suffered their worst catastrophe in years, and she comes promising not only safety, but retribution against those she claims are at fault. Even if I were skeptical, I'd be keeping a a hopeful ear open just in case she turned out to be genuine."

And in less than a minute, Ghira's plan to help convince Sienna to throw the White Fang's support in with Cinder evaporated. And if the two girls still had more surprises to drop on him? Suddenly, the beer in his hand seemed insufficient as an aid for all the new information Ghira would be processing today. Maybe Kali could make him one of her cocktails…

He looked over at his wife, and while her expression was one of discomfort at the prospect of Cinder's nefarious plans, her eyes held a look of determination. It was a look that never failed to inspire Ghira and convince him that he really could do all the things that the faunus needed him to do.

"If there's one thing you have to give her, it's that she is _quite_ charismatic." Kali said as she poured herself another cup of tea, "She's confident, attractive, and she is able to put action behind her words, regardless of whether those actions are genuine or orchestrated."

"So what do we do?" Ghira asked. He resigned himself to the fact that his daughter's information warranted a sharp change in his plans, and step one of his old leadership strategy had always been to poll the room for suggestions and insight before offering suggestions of his own. That seemed especially apt in this case, given that his guests apparently knew far more about the current geopolitical environment than he realized.

"Might as well start with the obvious." Yang said, "XCOM needs allies if we're going to push back against Cinder. She's apparently building this 'Advent' group, and I don't doubt that recruitment is out the door and around the block. We've sent some of our guys to Atlas, Mistral, and Vacuo, but they're probably outmatched in terms of resources and manpower compared to Cinder's goons."

Blake's ears drooped slightly as she looked at her parents, "I, uh… suggested to XCOM that you might be able to help with that."

Ghira's knee-jerk reaction was a pang of hurt in his chest when he realized that Blake had an ulterior motive in choosing to come home. The feeling left as quickly as it came, however, when he realized that _of course she did_ , considering how crazy her life has been over the past year. And besides…

"It doesn't matter why you came home, Blake." Kali said, voicing both of their thoughts. It wasn't hard to pick up on Blake's embarrassment from her tone and posture, and Ghira would be damned if he let his daughter's first experience back home be a painful one.

Time to put his daughter's mind at ease. "We'll do everything we can to help. As the chieftain of Menagerie, my word _does_ carry a significant amount of weight that could be used to help XCOM, but we must not be overt about it. Cinder is crafty, from what we've seen so far. If she catches on quickly that we're backing the other horse, I'm certain she'll throw a lot of resources towards discrediting us and coercing us into giving her our public support."

Kali stood up and started to pace behind the couch, the quiet _tap tap tap_ of her feet on the floor helping Ghira focus as his mind started to almost savor the prospect of the challenge ahead of him. Sure, Menagerie came with its own set of difficulties and hurdles, but it didn't quite succeed like the White Fang did in scratching _that itch_. Fighting back against a global conspiracy? Yeah, that should do it.

And the fact that it was for a cause championed by Blake made the prospect all the more enticing.

"We should start by questioning whether XCOM is truly evil." Kali said, "Cinder is trying to put on a show of encouraging the people to seek the truth for themselves, and while it's likely she's got plans for making sure they come to the… 'appropriate' conclusion, that gives us an opportunity to openly question her stance on XCOM without coming across as staunch opposition to her cause."

"Meanwhile, there's several people we trust within the local government and White Fang organisations," Ghira added, "It would be risky to try and convince a lot of people quickly that XCOM is right and Cinder is wrong, but starting with a few should be a safe move."

"What about Sienna?" Blake asked, "If we're able to win over the head of the White Fang…"

"Doubtful." Kali answered from behind the couch, "She's a firebrand, as I'm sure you're well aware. Cinder's personality and message of justice aligns very well with Sienna's goals, _especially_ when someone like Adam Taurus has her ear. Unless XCOM is able to fight back with similar bravado…"

"That's not Bradford's style, even if we had the resources to pull it off." Yang said. The nervous glance she traded with Blake didn't escape Ghira's notice, "Besides, there's uh… something you should know. About Adam."

Ghira raised an eyebrow as a million scenarios raced through his mind as to what that comment could possibly mean. He didn't like any of them. "Do I need to kill him for you, Blake?"

"That… won't be necessary." Blake answered with a sigh, "I took care of that myself"

"... What."

"Prick was working with whoever launched the attack on the Vytal Festival. He sabotaged XCOM's communications, killed an operative in the process, and tried to kill me when Blake and I were dispatched to investigate." Yang said. Her eyes flickered from lilac to red, and Ghira could faintly hear her heartbeat as it pounded harder and faster in her chest.

Blake, however, just looked sad. She gently squeezed Yang's hand, and the red eyes quietly cooled back to lilac. "Even with his dying breath, he refused to see reason. I told him that his actions, his choices, would undo all the hard work you did for the Faunus, and the only response he could muster was, 'Fuck you.' I'm not sorry he's dead."

The room fell silent. Although Blake's news had turned the mood somber, Ghira couldn't help but admit to himself that he felt relieved. He always had to acknowledge Taurus with a modicum of respect around Sienna, given her public approval of who she often called 'The White Fang's Rising Star,' but Ghira always hated how Adam sought violence before diplomacy. He was an angry soul that revelled in the bloodshed, but Sienna always turned a blind eye to the ugly truth. After all, Adam produced results, and the Khan always liked results.

With Adam out of the picture? Perhaps steering the White Fang towards XCOM wouldn't be so difficult after all.

Kali broke the silence, and broke Ghira out of his thoughts. "For what it's worth, Blake, I'm proud of you. That couldn't have been easy, physically _or_ mentally."

Those eyes, those beautiful eyes on Blake, lit up at Kali's words. The dour mood in the room started to evaporate, and Ghira tried to keep the momentum going by bringing the conversation back to planning their next move.

"Alright, so what do we have to work with? I'm guessing Bradford will be coming by to reconnect with you two, and we'll want to have some groundwork laid out by then."

"We came with two other operatives." Yang explained, "They're out exploring the port right now, but they won't have any trouble blending in. They've both been gene-modded, so they can pass off as cat faunus without anyone batting an eye."

"Gene… modded?" Kali asked.

"Later." Blake said, "But they're here to help us figure out how XCOM can get a leg up on Cinder's forces in Menagerie. I think while Dad is working the White Fang angle, the four of us can hit the street and try to discreetly find sympathetic ears while trying to spread good will for XCOM."

"Or we could try to help solve minor issues plaguing Menagerie." Yang suggested, turning to Ghira and Kali, "While XCOM's Covert Operatives specialize in recon and sabotage, that's not all they're good at. If you can think of any problems that we can set the boys on, I'm sure they'll make the most of the opportunity."

Ghira nodded in agreement. He knew of quite a few problems plaguing Menagerie, many of them too minor to merit a coordinated effort from the local militia. Some were Grimm-related that required martial prowess, and Ghira figured that a pair of operatives probably couldn't solve them independently (although a pair of operatives _and_ a pair of huntresses…). Others were more social in nature, and gathering intel to determine the best way to defuse the problem with a light touch might be more practical.

"For starters, there's some local hooligans that have been causing disturbances every now and then." Ghira mused, "Perhaps if your guys are as good as you claim, they might be able to solve the issue and earn some recruits in the process."

"I'll let them know." Blake said

Kali resumed pacing again, and Ghira looked over to see his wife's eyes furrowed and her chin pinched between her fingers. "What about ADVENT? We should try to figure what kind of presence they have on Menagerie, and see if there's a way to keep track of what they're up to." She stopped pacing long enough to fix herself another cup of tea while continuing, "I know your resources are probably limited, since you've described your operation as 'covert,' but I think this is one of the more important goals we should consider."

"Don't want to be blindsided by those guys." Yang agreed, "Yeah, maybe we can have one of our buddies start investigating the rowdy kids while the other looks into digging up dirt on what ADVENT is doing."

Ghira downed the last of his beer and stood up with a contented sigh, "It sounds like we've got a good start to our gameplan. There isn't much we can do for now, so why don't you two stay a little longer for dinner? We also have a pair of guest bedrooms you can use if you need to rest."

Kali sucked in her breath and gave Ghira a sympathetic look, "Mmmmm, we actually don't have as many available rooms as you think, dear."

"What do you mean?" Ghira asked, incredulous, "We've got the one adjacent to the backyard-"

"Full of boxes from the last social. I never put the gifts away."

"The one on the second floor by the hanging gardens-"

"I'm in the middle of repainting it."

"The little cabana we have separate from the main house-"

"Absolutely not. I haven't cleaned that out in _weeks_."

"The one under the first floor-"

"I don't like the arrangement of furnishings."

"Kali." Ghira sighed, "These are all minor issues that don't make the rooms unusable. Given that the girls lived on a _military base_ for almost a year, I'm sure that they'll be more than happy with any of our rooms. Surely you're not suggesting they find somewhere to stay in town?"

Kali looked aghast. "Of course not! I fully intend for them to stay here, how could you think otherwise?"

"But-"

"There's a perfectly good guest room we have just across from the foyer that they can use."

"... Room?"

"Is there a _problem_ , dear?"

Ghira felt the hairs on the back of his neck bristle under his wife's glare. "... No."

"Good." Kali said before turning to an amused Yang and a slightly mortified Blake, "You two settle in and rest for a bit while I prepare dinner. I hope you're hungry from your journey, because I'm planning on making a meal worthy of this occasion. Come along dear."

As Kali pulled a dazed Ghira out of the room, he could hear Yang whisper to Blake, "I _really_ like her."

* * *

Pain was the first thing she noticed that made her realize her consciousness had returned once more to the land of the living. She couldn't see anything, and she couldn't move her limbs (understandably so), but she was breathing, and she could hear her own thoughts, so that was a good start.

Quiet hisses washed over her senses, which was probably something to do with the machinery doing its thing. Suspended in some kind of fluid, but still secured loosely to a table backing, she wondered what the doctor was doing to her. Would she regret agreeing to this? Would it change her life forever? She didn't know. Considering the technology involved, anything was possible.

She listened to her steady breathing through the mask apparatus strapped to her face as she idly wondered if she was even supposed to be awake. Maybe the operation was finished, and she could be out of here soon? It wasn't uncomfortable in the chamber, exactly, but the sooner she could see a familiar face, the better. The hissing grew a little louder, and she heard several _pops_ that she hoped represented some of the equipment disconnecting in an expected manner. Sure enough, she felt the liquid in the chamber flow across her face, which probably meant that whoever was operating this thing had started to drain the tank. Through the new noise, she was able to make out someone humming.

Seriously? At a time like this?

The draining process seemed to drag on forever, and she wondered if the next step of the discharge process would be equally boring. Whatever. Not much else to do but wait.

Sure enough, the next step seemed to be converting the suspension chamber back into a prone operating table, and the equipment moved at a painfully slow pace. First was the tightening of the braces holding her to the table, then the steady (and annoying) whine of the gears and motors as they slowly rotated the whole contraption ninety degrees until she was laying flat on her back. When the top of the tank popped open and bright lights started to claw their way into the pitch-black container, though, she suddenly wished that the process had gone on for a few minutes longer.

Whoever had been humming stopped when the tank started to open, and the room remained eerily silent while the room's lighting continued to shine down painfully. Eventually, the room started coming into (blurry) view just as the whine of the machinery came to a stop. She looked around to see several faces standing slightly back from the table while one figure in a lab coat was working at a station next to her and glancing at the table every so often.

She tried to speak, failed as the words came out in a raspy croak, and tried again.

"Did it… work?" She whispered.

The lab coat figure nodded (maybe?) before a pleasantly feminine voice filled the room.

"It was a preliminary surgery, but I would say yes, yes it did. Welcome back, miss Nikos."

* * *

A/N: So I'd like to talk about Tales From The Avenger for a moment. It's something I'm excited about for two reasons. Firstly, it's something I can post between Remnant Unknown updates to help ease the pain of the content drought (kinda weird thinking about how I used to pump out a chapter every week when I was writing RWBY Within... like, dang).

Second, and more importantly, I think it's a golden opportunity to really flesh out some of the minor details that really add some character to the story. There are a lot of things I'd love to dig into, but we'd probably still be stuck on Patch if I tried to fit them into Remnant Unknown. I think Tales From is a great solution that will let me keep Remnant Unknown relatively streamlined without sacrificing exposition. Little details like insight into Weiss's time in the medical tent helping the wounded after the Battle of Vale, or some casual interactions between XCOM and the Reapers in Mountain Glenn. These are some examples of the kind of thing that I think are perfect for one-shot chapters in Tales From.

So if you have _any_ inclination to try your hand at writing something up for Tales From The Avenger, we would love to have you over at the Discord server to talk about your ideas and help turn them into a solid contribution to REMCOM's story.

Cheers.


	33. Decoys and Deceptions

A/N: Well that took longer to complete than I anticipated. Still, the three sections of the chapter were all fun to write, and I'm happy with how they turned out. Next chapter should (hopefully) be a little easier, since it's going to be a lot of shooty-shooty-punchy-punchy. Maybe I'm part-Ork, because I find that easier to write sometimes.

In any case, enjoy.

* * *

"You are listening to the Vale News Network. I'm Lisa Lavender, your host, here to welcome you to our evening report."

Desperado looked up from the early morning campfire and his bowl of grits to glance over at the small screen currently occupying the attention of several nomads. While their lifestyle was much more simplistic than the cityfolk of Remnant, the XCOM operatives were relieved to learn that even they had a means of staying connected with the rest of the world (even if it was only one-way). If Bradford decided to send a message to the kingdoms of Remnant, at least Desperado and his team would hear about it.

The nomads had no objections to taking in the operatives, just as May had anticipated. The prospect of three additions to their group that promised to pull their own weight was far more important than the risk of harboring fugitives who would likely be hunted by this new 'ADVENT' faction. Even when Cinder went on to spew more of her propaganda about XCOM, the nomads simply turned to Desperado with curiosity and interest in what he had to say on the matter. Given his prowess in hunting Grimm and Quail alike, the nomads had taken his word over those of the angry lady on the vid screen.

"Tonight, we have more news regarding the ongoing reconstruction efforts in Vale. As the Fall Maiden promised, supplies and manpower from Atlas have arrived to assist the local engineers and security details while work on the wall continues. Joining the Atlesian military is the first contingent of Cinder Fall's 'ADVENT' peacekeepers."

Lisa paused to shuffle some papers on her desk as footage played of decently-dressed soldiers moving through the streets and shooting Grimm. They all sported a red armband on their right bicep, and they all had helmets that obscured the upper half of their face. As a clip played of two peacekeepers returning the salute of a small gaggle of children during a patrol, Lisa added, "Our reports so far indicate that their presence has been well-received by the locals."

"Guess these locals have never lived with an occupation force before," one of Desperado's operatives quipped. Given that Keo Kosal was born and raised in Cambodia, Desperado couldn't really blame the man's misgivings. "I give them two months at most before the welcome wears thin."

"In other news, we-" Lisa cut herself off, and Desperado raised an eyebrow as he watched the news anchor raise a hand to her ear while she glanced off to the side of the set. She nodded at someone (her manager, maybe?), nodded a second time, and returned her focus to the camera.

"My apologies for the interruption, but we have some breaking news. It appears that our channel has been contacted by the leadership of XCOM, offering a live interview by video conference."

All eyes turned to Desperado, who couldn't help but crack a grin. "Central, you sly sonuvabitch."

"Our dedication to bringing our viewers quality news, and to seeking out the truth, demands that we accept XCOM's request. Please stand by."

The screen split in half, with static filling the left while Lisa's feed was pushed to the right. After a few moments, a dimly lit room replaced the dead air, with the shadowy silhouette of a man sitting behind a table as its sole occupant.

"People of Remnant," the figure started. Desperado instantly recognized the voice as Bradford's, though it sounded slightly raspier than usual, "I have no... doubt that, through some manner or another, you have heard the name... XCOM."

Kasal glanced at Desperado with a look that asked, "Is he really…?"

Smirk still firmly planted on his face, Desperado nodded that yes, Bradford was indeed channelling his inner Bailey.

"There are those who know of our… sacrifices when we first made ourselves known to the world during the Vytal… catastrophe. Those who saw us fight and die for the innocent, regardless of… where they came from. They know of our compassion, our… unwavering loyalty to those in need, no matter the circumstances. They know of the true XCOM."

Desperado was pleased to see that the news anchor had chosen not to cut off Bradford's opening remarks. Indeed, while she maintained a professional expression, she leaned forward ever-so-slightly as she listened to what her guest had to say.

"And yet, there are those who seek to… discredit our deeds. To brand us as traitors in a bid to… advance some as-to-yet unknown goal. They conveniently ignore… all that we've worked to accomplish, both during the calamity and in its wake, hoping that the… passage of time is on their side as people slowly forget us while we fade into the shadows."

"So why hide in the shadows, then?" Lavender blurted, unable to wait any longer, "Why not work out in the open where people can see your deeds?"

The silhouette smiled. "You must understand, Miss Lavender: though we may do our best work in the shadows…"

The lighting in the room slowly shifted to reveal the familiar face of Desperado's commanding officer, dressed in his usual green sweater vest, "... we are not afraid to step forward into the light. I am Central Officer Bradford, and it is a pleasure to make your acquaintance."

Lisa hesitated for half a beat before regaining her composure and answered, "Likewise, Central Officer. As I'm sure you can imagine, we have a lot to talk about."

"Of course."

"First, dramatic introductions aside, why don't you tell us about XCOM?"

Desperado chuckled. "She's got you there, chief."

Bradford's smile indicated that he agreed. "We are an organisation that is, shall we say… _independent_ from the four kingdoms. Our motives are simple: protect humanity against any alien threat that it might face."

"If you're not affiliated with one of the kingdoms, then… where do you come from?"

"Honestly? You wouldn't believe me if I told you. The world might learn in due time of our origins, but for now, know this: XCOM is more than the sum of its people. It is an idea, that those who are capable must help those who are not. It is an idea that I can say with one-hundred percent certainty has inspired people across the continents of Remnant to strive to be more than what they are. In that sense, XCOM is not so different from what Cinder claims ADVENT to be."

Interesting play there, Bradford. What's your game with the comparison to the megabitch? Or maybe he was trying to steer the conversation towards the elephant in the room?

"Since you've brought them up, let's talk about ADVENT and the Fall Maiden," Lisa said, making a few taps on her scroll to bring up Cinder's face on the bottom of the screen, "Miss Fall has been very vocal in her condemnation of your organization. Do you have anything to say about that?"

Bradford nodded with a sigh. "I find it… perplexing. Given that Cinder has been equally vocal that she's fighting for a better tomorrow, why would she have a reason to lie about XCOM's motives? I don't doubt that the people of Vale are benefiting from her efforts, and I am thankful that they are getting the aid that they so desperately need." Bradford looked straight into the camera with a piercing gaze that caught Desperado off-guard, "But ask anyone who was there during the calamity: who held and evacuated the festival's fairgrounds? Who established the commercial district safe zone? And who kept the refugees safe as they travelled to Atlas's staging area so that they could return to their respective kingdoms? That was XCOM, miss Lavender, and more than a handful of good men and women lost their lives fighting so that others may live."

"And we'd do it again, given the chance." Kosal quipped, "Don't even need to think twice about it."

"Damn straight."

On the screen, Lisa Lavender had changed the bottom image from Cinder to that of the scrolling code she posted during her initial announcement to the world. The anchor looked up from her scroll and asked, "Then what of-?"

"All the damning XCOM files that our dear Maiden found on Amity?" Bradford asked with a raised eyebrow, "The data on civilian Aura levels? The incredibly precise Grimm count in Vale, and the operating procedures to create as much division and chaos as possible? I'm very curious where Cinder got those files from, too, because they're certainly _not_ from XCOM."

"How would you know what's in those files if they're not yours?" Lisa asked, her tone impressively neutral, "As far as I know, the data hasn't been distributed by Cinder to anyone but me, and I have not conducted a segment on what I've learned."

"I had a team of operatives and scientists that remained onboard Amity to prevent it from colliding with Vale - _another_ example of XCOM's valor, by the way- and they stayed with the wreck after it crashed to recover the data that we first discovered in the minutes after Amity's shields went down." Bradford shook his head. "From what I've seen of the files, I don't blame you for taking your time and being thorough before you release that information. It's quite shocking."

"I… yes it is…" Lisa agreed, slightly dazed. Desperado could practically see the cogs turning in her head as she tried to figure out who was telling the truth and who was lying.

"If you want to know what are _real_ XCOM protocols, ask the refugees how we secured the safe zone with fireteams and Grimm killzones, how we took down the Beringels that attacked the fairgrounds with precision sniper fire and mechanized personnel to keep the monsters away from the civilians, or how-"

Bradford paused, and Desperado saw him cock an ear towards what he guessed was the door. The Central Officer put a finger to his ear, listened to whoever was on the line, and hissed, "They did _what_? Oh for-" Bradford looked past the camera with a mixture of annoyance and embarrassment, "Beags, can you, just... ?"

"Yeah, I've got it, boss." Came a familiar voice from off-screen, "Go deal with whatever's going on."

Bradford nodded, apologized to the news anchor, and dashed out of the room. As Lisa Lavender stared at the screen blankly, another figure stepped into view of the camera, his shit-eating grin stretching a mile wide.

"Sup, everyone. Brad doesn't realize this, but we, uh… cooked up some live entertainment. To keep him occupied for a while so I can have a chat with the rest of you."

"Live… entertainment?" Lisa asked.

Beagle shrugged. "Some of the engineers down in the mech bay figured out how to remote into the spare mechs we have laying around, so we did the natural thing and strapped chainsaws to their arms so we could enjoy a non-lethal fight ring. It's like Sock 'Em Boppers for nerds. _Adult_ nerds." He added, with a cough, "Kids, don't try that at home. Seriously. Chainsaws aren't toys."

Desperado couldn't help it. The absurdity of Beagle addressing the whole world, talking about underground robot chainsaw fights, was enough to get him laughing. Leave it to Beags to show the… ridiculous side of XCOM.

"So, uhm… did you have anything specific you wanted to talk about?" Lisa said, still shocked by the abrupt change of tone in the interview, "Since you went to such great lengths to remove your commanding officer…"

"I've got a lot of words for Little Miss Fall Maiden, but it would be ideal if I could get invited back onto your programming in the future, so I'll regrettably have to pass on that. You know. For the children." Beagle cleared his throat and his expression changed from goofy to serious. "But you're right. There are a few things I need to say."

The Rocketeer leaned back against the desk, arms folded across his chest as he stared directly at the camera. "It's one thing for Cinder to throw shade at XCOM. Whatever, I can see how The Unknown might encourage a fearful reaction. But to go after the _huntsmen_? You know, the ones that put their lives on the line day in and day out to identify and neutralize Grimm threats, rescue people in danger, explore the infested wilds in the name of humanity… To treat them as treacherous, conniving con artists is horrifying."

Beagle pulled his shirt off to reveal a body pock-marked with the scars of warfare. He pointed to a bad gash on his shoulder and looked up at the camera. "This one came from a Beowolf that slipped past my rifle. A lovely huntress from Atlas bailed me out before the monster made a snack of my arm."

He looked down again and found a scar on his flank. "This one's from a Boarbatusk. Caught me off-guard. I'd probably be missing a chunk of flesh if it wasn't for a student from Vale."

Finally, he gestured to a long, thin gash across his chest. "Saved this one for last for a reason. As you've probably guessed by now, I have a huntress to thank that this is the only souvenir I've got from a run-in with a Nevermore. That huntress, however, is someone you're probably familiar with."

"And who would that be, mister…?"

Beagle flashed a sheepish grin as he put his shirt back on. "Sorry. Captain Teasdale. And the huntress would be Pyrrha Nikos."

"The Invincible Girl?" The news anchor said, surprised, "She's with XCOM?"

"Yup. But you wouldn't know that, since her message of comfort and hope on the night of the Vytal Catastrophe to the horrified people of Remnant never made it to the CCTS. Because Cinder tried to kill her at the top of Beacon Tower." Beagle shrugged again. "Turned the poor girl into a paraplegic, which is basically just as bad for someone like Nikos, so I guess… mission accomplished?"

Lisa gaped at the screen for a second before she remembered that she was a professional news anchor. "That's… _quite_ the accusation, Mr. Teasdale."

Beagle smirked, "Yeah, that's what you said to Cinder, wasn't it? It'd be a _real shame_ if I had some evidence to back up my claim. You know. Like a recording of the message?"

The left side of the screen turned black, but the recognizable voice of one Pyrrha Nikos filled the void seconds later.

" _People of Remnant, I am Pyrrha Nikos, and I stand before you with an important message…_ "

Desperado listened with interest to the recording, as it was entirely new to him. He didn't know that Shen's team tried to send out a message, though the optimistic tone sounded pretty par for the course, considering that Pyrrha was the one speaking. To the anchorwoman's credit, she managed to maintain a neutral face as the recording continued to play. Some of Pyrrha's words tugged at Desperado's heartstrings, and his throat tightened ever-so-slightly when the Master Sergeant reminded the world that men and women stood waiting and willing to put their lives on the line to protect the innocent.

" _We will bring an almighty fury down upon the Grimm to drive them back into the darkness from whence they came, and to where they belong._ "

XCOM's video feed returned after the recording finished, and Beagle was now sitting behind the table (his shirt back on) with a smirk on his face, "So tell me: why would Cinder fight tooth and nail to stop that message from getting out? Seems like trying to console a terrified world during its darkest hour would be right up her alley if she's 'striving for a better tomorrow,' don't you think?"

"As inspiring as that speech was, it still doesn't provide evidence that Cinder stopped it," Lisa answered, "For all we know, XCOM could have been the one that shut it down."

"Ah yes. We're the ones responsible for stopping a recording that _we are now broadcasting to the world_." Beagle sighed. "I get that it's important to remain impartial in your line of work, Lisa, but c'mon. In any case, I'd love to bring Pyrrha Nikos herself on here to tell you to your face that Cinder isn't what she claims she is. But like I said, our dear sweet Fall Maiden did _quite_ the number on my friend, so we'll have to wait until another time to have that particular chat. For now…"

The lighting started to dim as Beagle continued to speak, "Take comfort in the fact that XCOM aims to do what we've always done: protect the innocent and fight for what's right. It's in our blood, and _nothing_ will convince us to give up." Eventually, the room returned to its original condition, where the only thing that remained visible was a dim silhouette of the man behind the table.

"Keep fighting the good fight, people of Remnant. And remember… we will be watching."

The live feed disconnected, and the anchorwoman was left to follow up with an analysis summary for her viewers. The nomads, however, no longer cared about what was on the screen and turned to look at Desperado with curiosity.

"That man," one of them said, "That Central Officer Bradford. He is your leader, yes?"

Desperado nodded.

"He seems honest," The nomad decided, "He has a good soul. I wish to hear more about him."

At that moment, Desperado realized that he'd arrived at a crossroads of sorts. Here, he had the potential to tell the nomads exactly what Bradford was, which in itself was quite inspiring. Or, he could… embellish a little, to help spread the legend of XCOM among the people of Vacuo. He wouldn't be lying, since every word of what he'd say would have at least a grain of truth to it.

And besides, it would be badass.

Desperado conspiratorially looked from one face to the next before he said in a low voice, "There are tales too many to count about the Central Officer that describe his exploits and heroics. So great were his deeds, that there are some that refer to him only as… _The Great Commandy One._ "

* * *

"C'mon, Blake! Let's go!"

A young woman, camouflaged in the evening shadows, gazed upon the waiting huntress as she stood outside the Belladonna manor dressed in a casual suit. The hidden intruder's eyes burned with a mixture of hatred and jealousy for the yellow-haired one, who stood lazily with hands stuffed in her pockets, and faint flickers of red danced uninvited across the watcher's skin. The huntress was dressed in fine clothing as she waited for one Blake Belladonna to appear. Who did this girl, this _human_ , think she was? Leaning against a pillar, checking her scroll, as if she deserved to even be on the same continent as the first leader of the White Fang and the Chieftain of Menagerie, let alone living in his _household_? And she had the nerve to think she was friends with Blake? Blake Belladonna, who spent years suffering alongside her brothers and sisters in the White Fang, fighting for the very-

"Give me a moment, Yang."

The eyes softened at the sound of Blake's voice, and a pale melancholy washed over the intruder just as a wave of dull blue washed over her body. After all these years away from each other, after the vast expanses of space that had stretched between them when Blake ran away to Vale, and not one single attempt to reconnect? They'd gone through so much together in their youth, all the hardships and struggles to fight the good fight for their people. The number of times they'd saved each others' lives was easily too many to count. The number of victories they scored in the name of faunus across the world were equally legion.

They were comrades-in-arms, battle sisters… they had a _history_. And Blake didn't seem to care.

"Blaaaaaaaake." The annoying human whined, "We've gotta goooooooooo!"

Or maybe she'd been stolen. No matter what reassurances Adam had her about Blake "returning to the fold" after seeing first-hand the evils of humanity, the decision to let her run away to Beacon had been a bad idea. For whatever reason, Blake had forgotten her purpose, her people. The moment she'd had a taste of Vale's upper crust, and she allowed herself to consort with humans that didn't give care about the thousands of faunus suffering every day at the hands of their oppressors. Blake had been wooed by a false, romantic life just like the ones she'd read in her endless supply of novels, and had replaced her real friends with the likes of Yang.

Yang Xiao Long. Perhaps Blake didn't even know that her new best friend had savagely murdered Adam Taurus, Hero of the White Fang and Blake's closest mentor. If only Blake actually _cared_ about the White Fang, she would have had the chance to learn of the recent tragedy from the Albain brothers. Maybe then she would realize that she was in the company of a cold-blooded killer.

The front door opened, and Blake stepped out in a gorgeous evening dress. She took Xiao Long's proffered arm, and the two of them started their walk towards the port city, evidently to have a night on the town. Of course. Beacon must have really done a number on Blake, as evidenced by her disturbing priorities. Why rejoin the fight for freedom and liberty when there was pointless fun to be had with a filthy human?

Well, perhaps her priorities could be rearranged if the cancerous influence were to simply be removed. Surely once the human was eliminated, then the haze clouding Blake's senses would evaporate, and she'd be reminded of the importance of all that is at stake for the Faunus.

And she would see why Lady Fall was the key to their victory.

"Sister Amitola," A voice whispered several feet behind her. She'd noticed Fennec's presence a few minutes ago, and appreciated his discretion in waiting to draw her attention until after Blake had left.

Ilia turned around to see her comrade looking at her with his usual serene smile, "The time has come to enact our plan."

"The time has come to avenge Adam." Ilia answered, drawing herself up to her full height and brandishing her weapon, "Lead the way. I'm ready."

* * *

"Good morning, Friend Nikos!"

Pyrrha had been lying awake in bed for at least half an hour, idly pondering the realities of her condition. Her thoughts weren't as dark as they used to be, given that Vahlen's success had given her a sliver of hope to latch onto. All the same, she thought of the doctor's warning that the surgery was a preliminary one: Pyrrha still couldn't walk, and it took a herculean effort to so much as lift her arm an inch above the bed. But the fact that she could even wiggle her toes to begin with was all the evidence Pyrrha needed to firmly believe in Vahlen's promise.

The sheer kindness and generosity shown by everyone else had also overwhelmed Pyrrha slightly. Maybe it had always been there and she had been too caught up in her own misery to notice, but so many people came to see her, and not to say 'awww, poor Pyrrha. We're sorry you're a cripple.'

Like her current guest, for example.

"Good morning, Penny. How are the repairs coming along?"

Penny flashed a cheerful smile as she started to unfold Pyrrha's wheelchair by the foot of her bed. "Quite well, thank you for asking! Nichole and Gidjit have been instrumental in the reconstruction."

"... Nichole?" Pyrrha asked with a confused frown. Was that someone from Patch that had joined the crew?

"Oh! My apologies, Pyrrha. Nichole is one of the names my counterpart and I have come up with to help distinguish us."

Pyrrha raised an eyebrow, though she couldn't stop the amused smile from slowly spreading across her face. "One of…?"

"We plan to cycle through the various names on a daily basis to see which one sticks." Penny explained as she rolled the wheelchair around so it was sitting next to Pyrrha, "Are you ready?"

Pyrrha nodded, and she let Penny lift her into the chair. The repairs had certainly been effective enough to make carrying the dead weight of a young adult look effortless. Her robotic companion gingerly lowered Pyrrha into the chair, and the two of them set off for their destination: The Skunkworks.

The Avenger's lower decks were massive and out-of-the-way from the rest of the traffic on the ship, a perfect place for Vahlen and Shen's more sensitive research, as well as projects that required more open space. Further, it provided a suitable area that the Reapers and Vipers could claim for their quarters. Given that their presence and tech opened up a multitude of research opportunities for Vahlen, it made sense to have them living close to the Skunkworks.

"I wonder how the Archon is feeling today," Penny mused.

"It still leaves me awestruck that he agreed to join us on the Avenger, and that he was willing to move the surgery and MELD equipment onboard." Pyrrha looked down at her hands and willed herself to twitch her fingers. "Am I really worth that kind of sacrifice?"

"Absolutely!" Penny answered as she rolled Pyrrha into the main elevator, "I've talked with the Archon several times, and he strikes me as a very wise leader. While Bradford made the request, the choice to come aboard with the equipment was ultimately up to the Archon. I don't think it's a decision he would have made lightly!"

The decision was also risky. Not all of the Reapers and Vipers joined XCOM on the Avenger. Many stayed behind in Mountain Glenn to maintain a base of operations. Without the Archon to protect and guide them, Pyrrha worried about the safety of the inhabitants. Would they survive being discovered by ADVENT? Or could they hide away so effectively to keep themselves from being discovered in the first place?

The elevator doors opened up and Pyrrha was greeted with the familiar dim lighting of the Skunkworks sector. Several islands of light dotted the darkness, faintly illuminating the silhouettes of several engineers and scientists working on their various projects. Intermittent flashes of light mixed with an electric crackle, the high-pitched whine of power tools, the deep clanging of hammers… it was amazing that the sounds didn't carry to the upper decks of the ship.

Through the darkness, Pyrrha saw a small object float towards her from one of the project sites. Her first thought was that a Drone from the Long War had somehow made it to Remnant, but she noticed several differences once the object got close enough for her to see through the dim lighting. While it was indeed some sort of flying robot, it looked a little boxier than the old Drones, and it looked like it had several gravity Dust crystals attached on the underside of its chassis to keep it aloft.

Before she could further analyze the hardware, a tinny, familiar voice echoed from the little flier,." _Salutations, Pyrrha! How are you feeling today?_ "

Pyrrha smiled. "More cheerful than I've been in a while, I think. Thank you, Nichole." Pyrrha couldn't help but giggle as the little robot performed Penny's trademark flip. "Is that a new body for you? I would have thought something like one of the Atlesian Knight frames might suit you better."

" _Oh, I have one of those, too! I am simply helping Lily Shen test the hardware for one of her projects._ "

"PYRRHA!"

Another figure sprinted over from the worksite where Nichole came from, and the beaming face of Lily Shen stopped a few feet short of Pyrrha's wheelchair. Hands riddled with bandaids and soot tried in vain to wipe the grease stains on her smock. Pyrrha noticed that her hair was slightly matted, a couple of light sunburns blemished her face… and were those burn marks on her shirt? Regardless of all the engineering battle scars, Pyrrha wasn't sure if she'd ever seen Lily looking happier than she did right now.

"Hello, Lily." Pyrrha greeted, "Looks like you're having fun down here. Staying safe, I hope?"

Lily laughed nervously, "Yeah, uh… Dad's already given me a couple of warnings about being more careful. But the stuff we're working on down here is just… it's _so cool_. C'mon, I'll show you."

Lily set off, and the two Pennies followed behind with Pyrrha as they walked, floated, and rolled towards the first project site. As they got closer, Pyrrha could see Gidjit working on some heavy-looking guns. Nothing as big as the primary artillery that Atlesian capital ships were known for carrying, but they certainly looked too big for operatives to carry into combat.

"So this is where you've been hiding for the last couple of months…"

Gidjit didn't stop working while he responded to Pyrrha's comment. " _YES. MANY PROJECTS NECESSARY TO IMPROVE XCOM DEFENSIVE CAPABILITIES. THREATS TO AVENGER: CONCERNING._ "

Pyrrha glanced over at Lily. "His conversational skills seem to be improving."

"Really?" Lily cocked her head and paused to think about it. "Yeah, I guess so. Just never noticed, since we hang out all the time. He's been indispensable down here, though. Penny wouldn't be nearly as fixed as she is without his help."

"Indeed!" Penny agreed, "Thank you again for all your work, Gidjit!"

" _HAPPY TO DO IT._ "

"But he's right about the Avenger," said the young Shen, "We had to ditch all the ship-mounted weaponry in Vale in order to get her airborne long enough for the jump to Patch, so she's pretty defenseless. Maybe someday we'll get something that resembles a primary weapon suite, but for now…"

Lily patted the cannon Gidjit was working on. The craftsmanship was excellent, no question about it. Pyrrha wondered where the raw material was coming from, though, since the scrap metal in the repair bay didn't seem like a good candidate for conversion into rifled barrels. Perhaps the Reapers had storerooms of supplies that they'd offered to XCOM? Either way, the teams in the machine shop and the Skunkworks were pulling off impressive feats of engineering.

"... We should _at least_ get some point defense systems up and running," Lily continued, "If the business with Amity Colosseum taught us anything, it's that those Grimm fliers are a serious problem."

"Makes sense," Pyrrha agreed, "So what have you been working on? Nichole said that her chassis is one of your projects."

Lily flashed a grin and waved the group on to the next project site. "Couple of things. Dad asked me to work on some aerial drones that we could use to get eyes on the AO so that Central has more to work with than body cams. The scout drones were easy enough to make, with some help from Ruby and, surprisingly enough, Oobleck."

They arrived at a worktable with a bunch of robotic hardware and several computer stations spread out across the bench. Pyrrha couldn't see too much on account of her reduced elevation, but she did see that the drones varied in size by quite a bit.

"Smallest ones are for close-quarters stealth requirements," Lily explained, "Some of the bigger ones are capable of loitering at a combat zone for longer, and they've got enough lift to carry a couple of fun little extras. The biggest ones…"

Nichole rolled in place and cheerfully added, " _The frames like this one will hopefully be used for combat operations!_ "

Pyrrha couldn't deny that a flying robotic companion equipped with a suite of combat tools sounded pretty useful. From what Ruby told her during the Long War, Gidjit wouldn't be part of XCOM if it weren't for Nichole's presence on Ruby's strike team.

"Will you be piloting them whenever they're used?" Pyrrha asked.

Nichole rotated the drone left and right. " _Ideally not. Lily wants to create a basic VI program that knows to follow an operator and can carry out some basic commands and functions in the field._ "

Lily grabbed another chassis sitting on the workbench and started to fiddle with some of the joints and actuators. The frame looked simple enough, but Pyrrha could see that it easily had the potential to evolve into something greater.

"If the system is a success, we can start looking at adding more complex programming to the VI." Lily explained, "But we're going to start simple for now, and Nichole will be riding shotgun, so to speak, in case she needs to override the VI for whatever reason."

Pyrrha watched as Lily buttoned up the chassis and put it back on the table. "That's really impressive, Lily. You're certainly coming into your own as an engineer. Your father must be really proud."

Lily beamed. "And that's not even the best thing I've been working on. C'mon, we'll skip the Rapid MEC Deployment project so I can show you my _other_ baby." She winked before turning around to lead Pyrrha to another section of the project bay. "I think you're going to like this one."

As they walked, Lily glanced over her shoulder and grinned sheepishly at her guest. "This one is… ah… the reason I've got all these cuts and burn marks, actually. Nicho is showing me how to weld, and I'm learning pretty quickly how dangerous that stuff can be."

"As long as you come out of the experience intact and with the understanding of what you did wrong the first time…" Pyrrha laughed, but now she was growing more curious. If this project of Lily's involved welding _and_ the expertise of someone like Nicho, then it must be pretty serious. Pyrrha had spent enough time with Dr. Shen's daughter by now to know that Lily very rarely swallowed her pride to ask for technical help from anyone (with her own father and Ruby as notable exceptions) for her projects. What was she working on?

Their destination was an unlit corner of the bay, though Lily quickly fixed that with a light kick to the workstation's power switch. Several bright lights flashed on, revealing a large, boxy frame covered by what looked like a cloth blanket. Lily darted forward, grabbed a corner of the cloth, and pulled it off to reveal the skeletal structure of… a car?

It definitely had four rugged-looking wheels and a driver's seat equipped with controls that Pyrrha could follow to a couple of systems housed in the rear of the contraption (including an engine). Metal bars wrapped themselves around the cockpit to provide a roll cage for the operator, though they offered no protection against bullets, Nevermore feathers, or anything like that. Aside from the basics that defined the thing as a four-wheeled vehicle, the car didn't appear to be sporting anything special.

That didn't stop Lily from being proud of it, though. "Tadaaaaaa!" She intoned as she gestured towards her work, "This is something that I've been working on for a while, but I didn't want to show you until… y'know… progress was made on your condition."

Pyrrha's heart skipped a beat.

Wait… Lily made this for _her_?

"It took some convincing to get Yang to agree to let us cannibalize her bike-"

Holy shit.

"... but Dad cut her a deal to greenlight and fast-track a couple of projects in exchange for the hardware, so we've got a pretty solid engine on this thing. Still, had to make some sacrifices in the defensive department to keep her lightweight enough to take advantage of the horsepower. But at the same time-"

"Lily."

The girl cut herself off mid-sentence when Pyrrha said her name, and worry lines grew across her face and fear flickered in her eyes. "Do… you not like it?"

Far from it. Pyrrha was _ecstatic_ that Lily had gone through all this work for her. But it was a lot of work. Did she really deserve it?

"I love it," she assured her friend, "It's… it's amazing that you did all this for me. But aren't there other things that XCOM needs you to work on?"

Lily sat down on one of the vehicle's all-terrain tires and reached for a rag to wipe some of the dirt and grime off her hands and face. In the silence, Pyrrha worried that she'd hurt her friend's feelings.

"I've talked to Jaune a couple of times over the last few months," Lily began, "I… didn't want to annoy you by coming to see you all the time, so I'd ask him how you were doing instead."

The revelation stunned Pyrrha. Behind Jaune and Moira, Lily had been one of her most frequent visitors. Learning that she'd actually wanted to visit _more_ often was surprising, to say the least.

Lily continued, "The one thing he always mentioned, especially early on, was how often you'd say you felt like dead weight, and how you wished you could be helping XCOM like the rest of the operatives and huntsmen. You wanted to be _useful_ again." The girl glanced back at her creation and rapped her knuckles on the metallic frame, "I want you to be useful, too."

" _We're working on integration tech that would allow me to be your co-pilot._ " Nichole added, " _It would allow me to provide you with a driving-assist function to help compensate for your reduced strength while you recover, and I would be able to manage several of the memory-intensive auxiliary systems while you focus on operating the vehicle!_ "

"Kind of like how she co-pilots the Odin with Ryder and Gidjit." Lily noted, "... I'm not planning on integrating Gidjit into the system, by the way."

Pyrrha laughed, but her voice choked about halfway through as her emotions finally caught up with the moment. She looked up through slightly-blurry eyes to see Lily still sitting there, smiling back at her. The young woman didn't say anything, she just sat and watched while Pyrrha soaked in the camaraderie of it all. Nothing needed to be said, anyway. Everyone always talked about how actions speak louder than words, and right now? Lily was practically screaming, ' _You matter, Pyrrha. And we haven't forgotten about you._ '

"Thank you." Pyrrha whispered, "This is amazing."

"There's actually one more thing I wanted to talk to you about…"

Before Lily could finish, Gidjit's voice sounded over the Skunkworks comms, " _PENNY, PENNY, AND LILY. PLEASE REPORT FOR NEXT STAGE OF PENNY RECONSTRUCTION._ "

Lily's face looked slightly crestfallen before Penny told her, "We'll go on ahead, Lily. I think we'll be alright for a few minutes without you while you talk with Pyrrha."

"T-thanks." Lily said with a smile, "I'll be over with Pyrrha in a little bit."

They waited for Penny and Nichole to leave before Pyrrha asked, "So… what is it you wanted to discuss?"

Lily let out a small, nervous laugh, which only served to further pique Pyrrha's curiosity. If there was something embarrassing or difficult that Lily needed to talk about, Pyrrha definitely wanted to help. After all the work that Lily had done for her, it was the least she could do in return.

"I'm actually kinda glad it's just you and me, since this is a bit more personal." Lily began, "But… I know it's going to be a while before you're strong enough to drive this thing."

Ah. Pyrrha didn't want to show that she was hurt by the observation, especially since nothing in Lily's statement was anything but unbiased truth. So she merely nodded and waited for her friend to continue.

"It's actually helpful for me. There's _a lot_ that still needs to be finished before I'm ready to have the car deployed in the field, and I can definitely use the extra time. But on your end, you're going to be actively working on getting stronger, right? Like, physical therapy and stuff?"

Again, Pyrrha nodded.

"Well, I…" Lily took a deep breath, "I want to help. I've got a lot of work down here with my projects, but I don't care. When you start working to regain your strength, I want to be there to help you and Jaune."

The two of them stared at each other in silence for a few moments, with Lily anxiously trying to figure out what Pyrrha was thinking, and Pyrrha taking a moment to figure out what to make of Lily's declaration. It was plain to see that the young girl's words came from the heart, that she honestly wanted to help Pyrrha in her time of need.

She had to respect that.

"That sounds… grand." Pyrrha answered, with a smile, "I would love to have another friendly face giving me encouragement during my training."

The smile her words earned from Lily immediately told Pyrrha that she made the right decision. Lily hopped up from her tire seat, dashed over to Pyrrha, and knelt down to give her a hug.

"You have no idea how much it means to me that you said yes." Lily said, stepping back to smile at her friend, "I won't let you down, I swear."

At that moment, Pyrrha got an idea. A way to pay back Lily for all her work, and a reason to stay motivated with her physical therapy.

"Let me train you as a huntress while you help me regain my strength." She said, "You should learn how to defend yourself while you're on Remnant, and it will give me another reason to become stronger."

Lily's eyes grew wide at the offer. "I… you, uh… well… that…. Holy shit."

"Think about it." Pyrrha said, smiling, "But for now, we should attend to Penny's reconstruction."

"R-right…" Lily stuttered. She got behind Pyrrha's wheelchair, and the two of them left the vehicle behind and set off for Gidjit's workstation.

* * *

" _Eyes up, team. Our friendly, neighborhood Jane Doe just arrived._ "

Yang perked up at the warning and swept her gaze over the crowd. Sure enough, the deer faunus that Hogarth had 'tagged' as a possible person of interest was making her way into the crowd. Was it possible that she was here to listen to Ghira's planned speech? Well of course. But was it also possible that she was here to cause trouble on behalf of a rogue branch of the White Fang? Hogarth's 'adventure' of camping out in the bell tower over the last couple of days indicated that Jane's evening activities were less-than-innocent.

"I still can't believe we've got an EXALT operative watching our backs," Yang muttered to her partner as they watched from the outskirts of the slowly-gathering crowd, "I mean… at least he laid his cards out on the table like that, but can we really trust him?"

Blake leaned back against the wooden railing and shrugged. "Misha trusts him. Says that Hogarth let him in on the secret when they first started working as operatives together. According to him, Van Doorn was only able to kill his brother and end EXALT thanks to Hogarth's assistance."

"True." Yang agreed as she joined Blake on the rail, "And the mimetic skin is pretty damn handy. Especially with what's been going on."

"Speaking of Misha, though…"

Blake nudged her partner and nodded into the crowd. After following Blake's gaze, Yang was able to notice their other XCOM escort casually making his way through the crowd. Mikhail Sokolov was a rather lean Russian operative, and the pair of feline ears adorning his head allowed him to blend in easily with the rest of the onlookers. Despite the seemingly random direction of his ambling, Yang could see that he was slowly circling around towards Jane while staying fairly close to the edge of the crowd.

" _She doesn't appear to be armed, but it looks like she's not here to enjoy what Papadonna has to say. Stay frosty, Mishka._ "

Before the Russian could get any closer to his target, an entourage of guards stepped out of the Belladonna household, followed by Ghira and Kali. Excited murmurs rippled through the crowd, as the citizens of Menagerie eagerly waited to hear what their leader had to say. They knew he planned to speak about the conflict between ADVENT and XCOM, but little else was known beyond that.

" _Couple of Jane's friends are showing up,_ " Hogarth warned, " _They're sticking to the back for now._ "

"Gotta admit," Yang said as she pushed off from the railing to follow Blake towards the front of the crowd, "It's nice to have a friendly eye in the sky. Especially since the two of us are a bit… conspicuous."

"Shhh." Blake chided, "Dad's about to speak."

Indeed, Yang looked up to see Ghira approach the podium with several pages of notes in his hand, as well as…

"Oh my god," Yang giggled, "Is your dad wearing _glasses_?"

"He's noticed that it makes him feel more relatable. Shut up."

Ghira began.

* * *

"Citizens of Menagerie, thank you for taking the time out of your day to hear what I have to say. Though I have guided our community for several years now, it still humbles me to see the trust that you all have invested in my leadership. Truly, I thank you."

Ilia had to admit: despite the fact that the old man was frequently at odds with the Albains, and even with Lady Khan herself, Ghira certainly knew how to give a speech.

"And it is that trust that compels me to speak to all of you about the… confusing times that we live in. The fall of Vale was a horrific catastrophe, and I don't doubt that all of you were affected in some way by the tragedy, directly or otherwise. I personally know several people who were in Vale during the attack. While I have been fortunate enough to learn that most of them are now safe, there are others still that I have not heard from since before that night "

" _We're on the move, Sister Amitola. Are you sure you can keep the girl distracted?_ "

"Leave it to me," Ilia whispered as she skirted the edge of the crowd. She'd been keeping eyes on Blake and Yang since they first arrived at the pavillion, keeping herself hidden until the time was right to draw Blake away. Soon, she would have the long-awaited chance to talk with her old friend.

"But we are strong, Faunus and Humans alike. Vale _will_ weather this tragedy, _will_ rebuild itself from the ruins, and _will_ flourish in due time, as it once did before. It is my hope that Remnant does not have to wait long before that day comes."

"Dang," Ilia heard Yang whisper, "Your dad is pretty good at this."

Ilia rolled her eyes and said nothing. Instead, she moved silently, invisibly so that she was positioned in the forest underbrush foliage on the other side of the fence where Blake was resting. Ghira shuffled to the next page of his notes as he prepared to move on to the next segment of his speech. Perhaps now would be a good time for Ilia to make her move as well.

* * *

"Blake…"

Blake's ears pricked at the sound of her name, spoken in a voice just below a whisper. The noise would have been lost amid the murmurs of the crowd had it not been for her sensitive hearing, but Blake was certain she heard the voice correctly. And she was equally certain about who that voice belonged to.

"In the meantime, there have been some troubling developments over the past few days that I'm certain you are all aware of. Cinder Fall, though she has done the world a tremendous service by restoring the CCTS, has made it very clear that she believes this 'XCOM' is a group of radicals that do not share our desire for a better future, and that the Order of the Huntsmen is similarly suspect."

"Everything alright?" Yang asked as she noticed Blake's sudden shift in attitude. Hushed whispers and low grumblings rose up from the crowd at the name XCOM, and Ghira paused his speech so he wouldn't need to talk over the noise.

" _Escorts are on the move as well, though it looks like they're not approaching the stage,_ " Hogarth noted, " _Aside from sidelong glares at Ghira, they do not appear to be hostile. Yet._ "

"Y-yeah…" Blake answered, craning her neck to see if she could locate the source of the whisper. If it was who she suspected it was, though, Blake knew the attempt was futile. Of all the times to reach out, couldn't she have picked a better moment?

Ghira raised a hand to bring the crowd back to order. "I am not here to tell you she is right. Nor am I here to tell you that she is wrong. What I _can_ say is this: The Fall Maiden has asked us do our due diligence in seeking out the truth. It is my goal to do exactly that. I know very little of this XCOM, but I have had the privilege of working with many huntsmen in my life. The notion that they do not have our best interests at heart is difficult to accept, but I am not willing to write it off simply because it would be inconvenient for me."

"Listen, Yang..." Blake started, hating herself for putting this on her partner. But what choice did she have? "I need to do something real quick. I'll try to be back as fast as I can, but… this is important. Do you mind helping Misha without me for a few minutes?"

Yang sighed, but nodded. "I got you. Just… be quick, alright?"

Blake smiled at her partner, then hopped the fence and slipped into the forest to track down Ilia.

* * *

" _Jane and crew have left the pavilion. Left one behind. West side. Mishka, head to Point Epsilon to stay close but out of sight._ "

Mikhail moved through the edge of the crowd, as if he were trying to get a better view of the speaker. When he was within several strides of the adjoining tree cover, however, he ducked away from the crowd and slipped into the shadows of the forest. Even through the muting effect of the trees, Mikhail could still hear Ghira's voice projecting from the pavilion.

"My aim is to approach this situation with an open mind, to give both ADVENT and XCOM the benefit of the doubt until the evidence can conclusively prove who is right and who is wrong. I hope that both organizations truly want a better future for Remnant, and that they are unnecessarily suspicious of each other. Perhaps one day they will reach an understanding, and we can all move forward as a unified force against the Grimm."

" _They moved into a building. Haven't seen them enter that one before._ "

Well that didn't sound good. Mikhail didn't have any weapons on him beyond a concealable switchblade. All of their equipment was left inside the manor for quick retrieval if need be.

"Recommending move to Point Beta," Mikhail muttered.

" _Agreed._ "

Time to relocate to the house. Hogarth could keep eyes on Jane's group, and Mikhail wanted to be ready in the event that they tried something funny with the Belladonna manor.

Just in time for the Q&A.

* * *

"Mr. Belladonna! The Fall Maiden restored the world's communication systems. Why are you giving XCOM the benefit of the doubt in light of Cinder's efforts?"

"Ilia…" Blake whispered, "I know you're there."

Blake saw a flicker out of the corner of her right eye, and she turned in time to see Ilia shimmer into view. She looked just like Blake remembered her, if a little older. The two of them didn't say anything for a few moments, just staring at each other in silence as Ghira answered the reporter's question.

"I have received multiple first-hand accounts of XCOM's heroics during the Battle for Vale. Even if you don't believe Captain Beagle's claim that they diverted the Colosseum from the city proper, I've talked with more than one person who saw XCOM's soldiers on the ground, keeping the Grimm at bay and putting their lives on the line so that the civilians in their care didn't have to."

Blake couldn't afford to have Ilia taking her own sweet time with this. She needed to be ready to help Yang and Misha if those agitators tried to pull something dangerous. "Ilia, you called me here for a reason. What is it?"

The hurt in Ilia's eyes made it clear that she was expecting something else. "That's… we haven't seen each other for years, and that's the first thing you can think of?"

"You've… kinda caught me at a bad time," Blake said, glancing back at the pavillion, "I'd _love_ to catch up with you and hear about how you've been, but it'll have to wait. I can't do it right now."

Ghira's Q&A continued with another question, "Do you intend to allow both ADVENT and XCOM personnel to walk freely on Menagerie soil?"

Ilia's skin tinged blue as Blake continued to say the wrong thing. "Blake… how long have you been back on Menagerie without me knowing? How long were you going to wait to try and reach out to me?"

"I didn't know you were here, Ilia."

"You didn't try to find out."

At the pavilion, Ghira answered the reporter's question.

"Of course," Ghira answered, "If they carry themselves with respect and professionalism, I see no problem with offering our hospitality. From the sounds of it, though, XCOM would rather keep a low profile. I don't think we'll be getting any public requests from them to enjoy a stay on Menagerie. Who knows? We might be hosting them even now. So long as their goal is to keep Menagerie's citizens safe from harm, I see no reason to reject them."

"Ilia, it's not that simple." Blake said, a tinge of frustration in her voice.

"But it is! Now that you're here, you can come back with me to the White Fang, and we can continue the good work that we started." Ilia's eyes searched Blake's for sympathy. Her body hunched ever-so-slightly, as if to brace for the letdown she was expecting from her friend. "The good work that your _father_ started. Please, Blake…"

" _We've got movement in the house._ " Hogarth warned, " _Bees, move in to support Mishka._ "

" _On it._ " Yang confirmed.

"I… have to go, Ilia."

Blake turned to rejoin Yang. She only had a split-second to register a small prick in her neck before something wrapped around her feet and yanked her into the dirt.

"No!" Ilia yelled, but a combination of people yelling questions at Ghira in the plaza and the poison she'd been stung with meant that Ilia's voice sounded very far away to Blake.

* * *

" _Blake hasn't returned from the woods._ "

" _Misha…_ "

Mikhail sighed, but he knew there was only one answer he could give to Yang. "Go find her, BFG."

Outside, Ghira's interview continued. The people of Menagerie had a lot of questions, it seemed, and their leader firmly believed in making sure that no concern was left unanswered while he had their attention. Good. Remnant needed leaders like that. It was Mikhail's job to make sure that Ghira had all the time he needed to do his job without any agents of chaos stirring up trouble.

" _Got no movement from Jane Doe._ "

Mikhail didn't like that. "I'm heading to the house to grab some gear. Something isn't adding up."

" _Agreed._ "

It didn't take long for the Russian to loop around and slip into the house through the back door. The guard at the entrance nodded as Mikhail moved inside, and nothing seemed out of place. Good. A quick trip down the hall to the guest bedroom where they stashed-

"... Oh, that's not good."

Staring at the unconscious body of one of the guards, Mikhail keyed his mic, "Man down in the house. Somebody managed to slip inside."

* * *

Hogarth's heart skipped a beat when he heard Mikhail's warning. How did any agents get past him? He had a perfect view of the clearing surrounding Belladonna house. No way could somebody get across the empty space without him noticing.

"That's not possible, Mishka," Hogarth said, his viewfinder sweeping across the Belladonna house, the forest, and the houses beyond, "Jane never left her building, and nobody ever made it to the manor."

Mikhail didn't answer, but a double-click on the comm told Hogarth all he needed to know.

His comrade was in danger, and he wasn't able to speak.

* * *

" _Bees. Mishka needs you. Now._ "

Yang knew that the moment she heard the double-click from the team's ground operative, but complete radio silence from Blake was far more concerning than an unconscious guard. She moved through the underbrush, trying to stay quiet enough to avoid detection by whoever might have incapacitated Blake while still desperately searching for her partner.

And the fact that Ghira was still conducting his assembly meant that Yang couldn't go in guns blazing in an effort to smoke out Blake's assailants.

"Fucking hell, Blake," Yang muttered, "You just _had_ to run off at the worst possible…"

Or did someone intentionally lure Blake away at precisely that moment? Did some assholes working for ADVENT know that the two of them were there to keep an eye on the pavilion talk and put a stop to any trouble that came up? Trouble that might, for example, result in a guard getting knocked out.

"Guys, I think Jane's got more backup than just the posse she came with."

* * *

It would've been nice if Yang told Mikhail something he didn't already know. He'd only had enough time to grab his arm guard from the XCOM stash before he'd heard the footsteps coming down the hallway less than a minute ago. And unless Ghira's instructions to the house guards had changed, Mikhail was pretty sure the faunus dressed in guard regalia sneaking through the house wasn't actually here to protect the Belladonna manor. How long had he been here? And what was he up to?

The impostor pulled a small device attached to a bright red crystal out of a small bag that hung on his hip, and Mikhail decided that this guest wasn't here to compliment Kali on the color coordination of her drapes.

He needed to take this guy down quickly and quietly.

The impostor tensed, snapped his head left and right with a semi-wild look in his eye, and gripped his polearm asked, "Is someone there?"

Right. Superior hearing and all that. Well, might as well be direct about it.

"Hey." Mikhail said as he stepped from around the corner. Before the faunus could react, he flipped open his switchblade and threw it at his target. The intruder yelped and stumbled as the knife buried itself in his shoulder, but he didn't have enough time to dislodge the weapon before his assailant charged forward, drove his head into the faunus's face, and yanked the polearm out of his hand as he fell to the floor.

The faunus yanked the knife out of his shoulder and lashed out at Mikhail, who danced back out of range before sweeping the blunt end of his new weapon up to catch his foe by the chin. Outside, Ghira's audience cheered at some statement he made.

" _I found her! She's out cold, but she's breathing._ "

The faunus rolled to his feet, glared at Mikhail, and dove in again with a slicing strike. The operative twirled past the attack and smacked the back of the intruder's head with the flat of his blade to bring the attacker to his knees.

"You're outclassed, whelp," Mikhail growled, "You can either tire yourself out as I beat you into submission, or give up-"

The boy's sudden surge of moment that flowed into a backwards strike was impressive, Mikhail had to admit. He managed to avoid getting stabbed directly in the gut by his own knife, but the operative was slow enough for the faunus's attack to slice his flank.

"I'll never bow to the likes of you, _race traitor,_ " snarled the assailant. His successful feint had evidently given the faunus a second wind, and he renewed his assault on Mikhail with increased vigor.

" _Mishka hasn't responded in the last two minutes. Get Sabretooth to safety, and get in there._ "

The faunus cocked his arm back, evidently to use Mikhail's own trick against him. The operative instinctively threw his arm in front of his face, and the folded wings of the armguard deployed just in time for Mikhail to hear a light _ting_ as the dagger bounced off of the small shield. Mikhail swung his shield arm forward, then dropped to one knee and held the business end of his polearm out to counter the melee he expected his foe to attempt.

" _Jane Doe's team has left the building, and is moving towards the house._ "

" _I'm on my way._ "

Indeed, the intruder yelped again as he twisted away from the weapon, though not before Mikhail lashed out with it and smacked the back of the faunus's knees. As the young man fell to the floor, a small device fell out of his bag and clattered to the floor. A device that looked very much like a detonator.

Fuck.

Mikhail dove for the detonator, smashed his foot into the faunus's face, and rolled away to safety once he had the device in hand. The faunus got to his feet, and flashed an evil, if pained, grin.

"I don't have the only detonator," he said before tapping his ear and whispering, "Do it."

 _Fuck._

As Mikhail dove for cover, he heard the faunus deliver his last words, "For the White Fang. And for my sister."

Less than a second later, Mikhail's world exploded in purifying flames.

* * *

As Yang carried Blake through the forest back to her house, she felt the ground shake, saw the gouts of flame erupt from the Belladonna manor, and heard the panicked screams of the people in the plaza.

"Holy shit."

Yang was already moving quickly due to Hogarth's warnings, but it was clearly time to move faster.

* * *

Ilia's eyes widened as she saw the house explode. She knew that their mission here was to send a message to the Belladonnas that their acceptance of XCOM would not be tolerated, and she knew that the Albain's were determined to succeed at all costs when they overrode her efforts to peacefully distract Blake. It took Ilia threatening to stab Trifa for her to give up on the idea of kidnapping or murdering Blake in cold blood. She'd probably have to answer to the Albains for that later, but…

But this? Would this not turn the Belladonnas into martyrs? The entire point was to scare them into bending the knee, not to publicly execute them.

What the hell were they thinking?

" _Sister Amitola…_ "

As if they were reading her thoughts, Corsac's voice filtered into her ear, reminding Ilia that she had a job to do.

" _Assist your family in making sure the intruder who attacked Brother Sorkin does not escape._ "

That… was not what Ilia expected to hear. Regardless, it was an order she could fulfill. Under the cover of chaos (and her own skin), Ilia dashed across the space between the forest and the Belladonna house and into the burning building.

* * *

"Jane is inside. BFG, You need to get in there and locate Mishka. Now."

" _I'm going! I just needed to give Blake to her parents first._ "

Hogarth watched Yang dash into the building while Ghira and Kali huddled over the prone figure of their daughter. Once the operative confirmed that Yang was inside, he kept his scope trained on all the exits to the house. If Jane and her friends tried to slip out quietly? One of them was getting shot in the ass.

"What a mess…"

Movement out the back door. Yep, that was his little party of raiders. Jane and her three cohorts, along with a body slung over the shoulder of the biggest henchman.

Wait…

Hogarth focused on the body, and swore before keying his comm.

"Disengage, BFG. They've got Mishka."

" _WHAT?!_ "

"Easy, now. I've got this."

Hogarth adjusted the power setting on his rifle, lined it up, led his target, and pulled the trigger. His gun barked once, and he lingered in his now-compromised nest for two seconds to confirm that his shot connected with Jane's leg (her flinch and stumble told Hogarth everything he needed to know) before he packed up his gear and slipped out of the belltower. He had no idea if anybody heard the report from his rifle over the noise of the burning house and the panicking crowd, but he couldn't risk being discovered. Besides. Now was the time to regroup with Yang and figure out what to do next.

He'd seen worse during the Long War. They'd figure out a way through this.

* * *

"Ghira! She's waking up!"

"Let me through!"

"Don't smother her, old man! She's still weak."

"Who are you calling-"

" _Children, please._ "

Blake's eyes slowly fluttered open to see three faces peering back at her. The sky looked dark, but light still danced across their faces. As Blake's sense of smell returned, she made a face at the acrid sensation accosting her nose.

"What… happened?"

Yang's expression hardened, "Nothing good."

"A bomb went off in the house, sweetie." Kali clarified, "Several, actually."

"Is everyone… alright?" Speaking was still hard, for some reason. Blake's throat felt dry and raspy, and her efforts to sit up caused a slight spike of pain in her forehead.

Yang gently pushed Blake back down. "Easy, there. The shitshow's over for now, so you've got time to get your strength back. But we've got another problem on the way. Two problems, actually."

"Of course…" Blake sighed, "What's next?"

"Mikhail got captured." Ghira said, "He made a valiant attempt to stop the bombing, and Hogarth confirmed that some of the terrorists carried him out during the chaos and escaped."

Yang grinned. "Not before he shot one in the ass, though. With a tracker round. He's currently trying to zero in on their location. Gonna take some time though, since the tracker isn't very high-tech."

"When are we bailing him out?" Blake asked. Her voice was already feeling a little stronger.

"Soon as Hogarth finds him. And as soon as you're feeling strong enough to join us."

Blake flashed a grateful smile at her partner. She had to admit that Yang knew her pretty well. Misha's capture was definitely her fault. She got distracted by Ilia when it mattered most, and she just knew that Yang would have prioritized locating her over backing up the operative in the house. If she hadn't been an idiot…

"I'm feeling better already." Blake sat up, groaned slightly, and laid back down, "... But maybe a few more minutes wouldn't hurt, either. What's the other problem?"

"Grimm," Ghira said, his expression matching his answer.

Maybe it was Blake's condition that had addled her brain to the point where she hadn't immediately made the connection between the house getting bombed and the threat of the Grimm, but her breath caught in her throat the moment her dad mentioned it. She'd only ever witnessed one full-scale Grimm raid in her time on Menagerie, mostly because its inhabitants were acutely aware of the dangers that lurked if fully provoked.

"That's… not good."

Yang raised an eyebrow, "How bad could it be? A bunch of Beowolves and Ursa… maybe a few Deathstalkers and Nevermore… nothing we can't handle, right?"

The Belladonnas gave Yang a sympathetic look. The young woman really had no idea, it seemed.

"Yang…" Blake started, "You know how Beagle would always talk about Australia, and how it's a giant deathtrap where everything there is genetically engineered to kill you?"

Yang raised an eyebrow, "Yeah… but he was joking. Drop bears don't actually-"

"It's not a joke on Menagerie."

Silence. Then, "Oh."

Ghira groaned. "It's going to take a miracle for us to get through this in one piece."

Blake shook her head. "No. It's going to take XCOM."


	34. Lightning Strike

A/N: Holy shit, it's been over a month since I last posted. I was trying to get the entirety of the Menagerie fight crammed into one chapter, but... there's way too much stuff that I wanted to happen for that to work. The good news is that the rest of the fight is _mostly_ done at this point, so the next chapter should be coming out (relatively) soon-ish, but I figured I'd drop this chapter now so that y'all had something to enjoy while I wrap up the Menagerie Arc.

* * *

Bradford watched the sunset from his seat next to Beagle on the bridge of the Avenger. The two of them, along with Firebrand, agreed to take the night shift as the ship finished the last leg of its journey towards Menagerie. By the pilot's estimation, they were due to arrive in about an hour, so Beagle decided to pass the time by flipping through some channels to see what was broadcasting on the CCTS.

And as luck would have it, their favorite Maiden was on for another interview at the VNN.

" _Welcome back to the Morning Report. I'm Lisa Lavender, and with me once again is Cinder Fall to discuss the recent accusations by XCOM. Welcome back, Miss Fall._ "

" _Thank you Lisa. I'd like to start out by stating the obvious: The claims made by this Teasdale fugitive are absolutely false. The mere notion that I would try to kill Pyrrha Nikos, a shining beacon of hope on Remnant, is ludicrous. It goes against everything I stand for, and it sickens me that XCOM would stoop so low as to insinuate something so vile._ "

" _Thank you for that assurance, Miss Fall. It does raise an interesting point, though. Pyrrha Nikos was seen at the Vytal Festival, but she hasn't been heard from since the catastrophe. If her name is being thrown around by XCOM, why hasn't she made a public statement about it?_ "

" _I couldn't say, Lisa. Perhaps an unfortunate injury did befall Mistral's four-time champion, and she is spending some much-needed time to rest. Or maybe she is taking the high road, and has chosen to stay out of this ugly business with XCOM. I only hope that she is doing well, or that she is on a speedy road to recovery._ "

" _I think everyone can agree with you on that. Now let's talk about this recording..._ "

Bradford cast a raised eyebrow over at Beagle. "How _did_ you get ahold of that, anyway? It wasn't from the bodycams, since those streamed their data straight to Mission Control. You know. On Earth."

"You've got Shen to thank for that little stunt." Beagle grinned, "Even while under the stress of being separated from his daughter, Santa was still thinking about the possibility of the broadcast getting interrupted."

" _Ah, yes. XCOM's undeniable 'proof' that I tried to kill Pyrrha Nikos. You said it yourself, Lisa: what do I have to do with that? If XCOM was so intent on getting the message out, why didn't they do so when I first restored the CCTS? Why wait until it was politically convenient?_ "

"... and?"

"He saved the recording in the tower's registry, changed both the name and file extension so that it wasn't recognizable as an audio file, and retrieved it remotely once the CCTS was back up."

"Wait… Shen has access to the CCTS? How did the Black Queen not notice?"

"Beats me. Shen thinks that the operator's arrogance is what let him pull it off. They probably assumed that Cinder stopped the message in time, and didn't bother to do a full file verification of the tower's systems. You'll want to ask him about the details, though. If we try to do something that's more obvious than pulling one file out of the system, I don't think his backdoor will stay hidden for very long."

"Good to know."

" _That's a point I hadn't considered._ "

" _This, Miss Lavender, is a perfect example of why I detest XCOM. How long have they been sitting on that recording? How long were they willing to keep the people of Remnant waiting, in fear, before they tried to restore some hope? ADVENT restored the CCTS, and ADVENT is at Ground Zero, working to help the people of Vale in their hour of need._ "

"Oh please," Beagle said, rolling his eyes, "Where the fuck was ADVENT when Grimm were on a murder rampage?"

"It's amazing how easy it is for her to lie, isn't it?" Firebrand quipped from the helm.

"Even more amazing that some people are eating it up." Beagle countered.

" _And I believe I speak for everyone when I say-_ "

Lisa abruptly cut herself off and put a finger to her ear. Her eyes grew wide in shock as she asked, " _Are you certain? What's your-? Okay…_ "

The news anchor cleared her throat and looked up apologetically at her waiting guest. " _My apologies, Miss Fall, but we have some… incredibly horrific breaking news._ " She turned back to the camera and clarified, " _I've just received word that a terrorist bombing was carried out on Menagerie that resulted in the destruction of the house belonging to the Chieftain of the nation's population: Ghira Belladonna._ "

Beagle groaned. "Oh you have _got_ to be shitting me."

Bradford was already making his way back to his station on the bridge as Lisa continued. " _The Belladonnas appear to be unharmed, but the people of Menagerie are now panicking, especially with the impending Grimm assault that is sure to be headed their way._ "

"This is Central." Bradford barked into his intercom, "Sounding _general quarters_. I need all hands prepped for combat. Menagerie just got hit by a terrorist attack, and is about to be buried under a wave of Grimm. We very likely have a full-fledged Terror Mission on our hands. Strike Teams One through Four: suit up, check your gear, and get ready to go in hot. Strike Teams Five and Six: you're on standby for reserve deployment. Reapers: prep to deploy with your assigned Strike Team. That includes Viper operatives as well. All other personnel: man your battle stations."

" _ADVENT stands ready to assist in any capacity we can._ " Cinder announced from the screen, " _Our forces on Menagerie are ready to repel the attack, and we have Atlesian support from a battlegroup in the vicinity._ "

"Punch it, Firebrand." Beagle ordered, "I don't think we can afford to spend an hour getting to our destination."

Bradford continued giving his orders to the crew. "Odin and Gizmo will be deploying with the initial Strike force. The remaining MECs will remain onboard the Avenger. Jaegers, report to the flight deck for aerial defense and ground bombardment. Talos, stand by for supplementary deployment.

"This is our chance to push back against Cinder's claims, people. And besides, BFG and Sabretooth need our support on this. We're going all-in to help the people of Menagerie and show Remnant that this tactic will not work under our watch. Vigilo Confido."

* * *

Mikhail gasped as a bucket of ice water snapped him back to the realm of the living. As his senses worked in overdrive to assess his situation, the first thing the operative noticed was the uncomfortable bindings that restrained both his arms and legs and kept them strapped to the chair he was in. The second thing he noticed was the blindingly bright light shining in his face.

As his memory returned, it didn't take the covert operative long to piece together who his host was.

"Hello, my friends." He called out, blinking in an effort to adjust to the bright light, "I am awake, so we can commence with the questioning and torturing. I'm afraid that I am on a tight schedule, and so I _really_ don't have time for waiting arou- _GUUHHH!_ "

Mikhail gasped as another bucket of water was poured over his head.

"As fun as that may be," He sighed, "It does nothing to move things along. So let's cut the shit and get going, shall we?"

"Let's make one thing crystal clear around here." A voice said from his one o'clock. A shadow stepped in front of the light, and Mikhail's eyes adjusted to reveal a young woman with speckled skin and what she probably hoped was an angry face staring at him. " _I_ am the one asking the questions and giving the orders. _You_ are to speak when I allow it."

Mikhail stared at his captor, fighting as hard as he could to hold back laughter. She took his silence for submission, and continued. "Good. I'm glad you're able to be reasonable-"

Nope. Can't do it. "PPFFFTTTAHAHAHA." The shocked, embarrassed expression coming from the girl almost made Mikhail feel bad for her, but that didn't change the absurdity of the situation. "I'm-AHAHAHA- I'm sorry for my _AHAHA_ rudeness. It's just that… it's _adorable_ that you think you're being-"

Mikhail's world turned sideways as the girl delivered a swift kick to the side of his head and sent him and the chair flying towards the floor. He grunted painfully as he collided with the wood, and the ordeal knocked all the humor out of him. He still didn't respect this kid as an interrogator, but she seemed likely to accidentally kill him in her efforts to play the bad cop. And a dead Mikhail wouldn't be very helpful for XCOM.

"Next will be a prick from my weapon." She growled, "Believe me when I say you _won't_ enjoy that."

"I didn't enjoy getting slammed into the ground, either." Mikhail answered with an eyeroll.

A pair of burly arms grabbed the chair from behind and roughly pulled the operative back into an upright position.

"Since you're so _eager_ to get on with the interrogation, why don't you start by telling us why we found you lurking around in the Belladonna house?"

Mikhail raised an eyebrow, "Seriously? I think you and I both know the answer to that one."

The woman brandished her weapon: a weird, segmented rapier-looking thing with a sharp tip. "Don't make me ask again."

"To stop you assholes from fucking up Ghira's speech." Mikhail looked around. His eyes were starting to adjust to the bright light, and he was get better at making out the other shapes in the room. "Nice work on that one, by the way. Great job demonstrating the unity of the faunus. Could you explain to me the point you're trying to make by bringing a horde of Grimm down on our heads?"

" _I'm asking the questions._ "

Mikhail shrugged. "Fine. Next."

The woman stared at him with a dangerous look in her eyes. Mikhail was having fun pushing her buttons, but maybe he should ease off the gas a little bit just in case she decided to stab him with that thing.

"Who else is with you?"

Mikhail looked around the room, saw another couple of figures in one corner with a first aid kit, and grinned. "Had my buddy watching my back, though it looks like you've already become acquainted with his rifle. Hogarth sends his regards, Jane!" He grinned as the deer faunus glared daggers at him.

"That's not her name." His interrogator said, annoyed.

"Yeah, but you wouldn't understand why we call her that. We've been keeping an eye on her for awhile, you see." The interrogator froze at the implication that her agent was being watched. Mikhail grinned, deciding to twist the knife just a little bit further. "Jane Doe's been preeeeeetty busy this last week. Guess we know why now. How's that ass feeling, sweetheart? Was it worth it?"

His interrogator let out a frustrated, strangled noise, grabbed Mikhail by the hair, and pulled him so that her face was inches from his.

"I don't think you understand the gravity of your situation." She sneered, "We're going to question you. We're going to torture you when you stop cooperating. And then we're going to kill you once you're completely useless to us. _You are going to die here_ , and nobody - _nobody_ \- is coming to help. _Do you understand?!_ "

Mikhail chuckled, though it was a dark chuckle and nothing like the uncontrolled laughter from before. The woman threw his head back and drew herself up to her full height as the operative regained his composure.

"Perhaps I should tell you a story before you start with the torture. Seems like you think you have all the time in the world, and you might even enjoy it." He noticed with a smile that he had the curiosity of several figures in the room, including Jane. "I'm not from here, nor am I from anywhere you know of. I hail from a nation known as 'Russia.'"

"Never heard of it."

Mikhail sighed. "I literally just said that. Now, I admittedly don't know much about the history of Remnant, but Russia? We were involved in a war. A great, _terrible_ war. Full of victory and failure, heroics and sacrifice. Many people, companies, and battalions from all sides were immortalized by the bravery of their actions, but us Russians? We had one regiment in particular, a wing of bombers, that will forever live in history: The 588th.

"Their equipment was nothing special. Inferior, in fact, to the enemies." Mikhail looked around at the curious faces of his captors and smirked, "Not unlike your little operation, I daresay. But fancy weapons and gear didn't matter for the all-women 588th. So quiet were they, so skilled were the pilots in their craft, that the enemy _never heard them coming_. They were hard to shoot down and nearly impossible to see in the starlit sky.

"Under the cover of night, death came like a whisper on the wind, a quiet sigh that sealed the doom of the poor, unfortunate souls caught in their crosshairs. Their foes dreaded nightfall, as it only meant that these fighters flying straight from the depths of hell itself had another chance to bring down the heavens upon them. So deadly, so unstoppable were they, that the enemy soon gave a name to them. A name fearfully whispered by those who knew their time had come: _The Night Witches_."

Several of the figures in the room started to give each other nervous glances, which only egged Mikhail on. "It's no exaggeration to say that XCOM has some Night Witches of its own. Jane has already had her first run-in with one, but Hogarth is not alone." Mikhail stared evenly at his captor, whose expression was contorted with a mixture of anger and concern. "So ask me your questions, for I will be happy to answer them. Render your torture, for I have made peace with my God and care not what you try to inflict upon me. Kill me if you must, but that will only seal your fate. The Night Witches will come. They will find me. And if I am dead? They will come for you next. _And you will never hear them coming._ "

His interrogator stared at him, and Mikhail could tell she was doing her best to conceal her nerves in front of the others. Her friends, too, were looking at one another, and then around the room at the slightest creak and cough. In the silence, Mikhail cracked a toothy grin and asked, "Well then? Shall we begin?"

* * *

" _Citizens of Menagerie, this is Ghira Belladonna. As you are well aware, we are facing an imminent crisis._ "

Blake and Yang looked at each other as they stood side-by-side with a detachment from Menagerie's militia. Forces dispatched from the island's White Fang mustered behind them, and Yang's constant side-eye glances told Blake all she needed to know about her partner's opinion of their reinforcements. Even so, Blake knew that they couldn't afford to reject the White Fang's assistance in this fight, nor would the people of Menagerie even think of doing so.

To their front, Blake saw the array of static defenses carefully developed by Menagerie's horticulturists. With the ever-present threat of Grimm on their doorstep, the citizens of Menagerie had practically turned barricades into an artform. Dense thorn bushes choked off any easy pathways into Kuo Kuana and funnelled the Grimm towards the main defense Sectors where the landscape made the creation of a complete wall impossible. But that didn't stop the faunus from building pit traps, spiked barricades, trip wires… when the Grimm hordes came knocking, any and every advantage was important.

Sentry towers equipped with searchlights and automatic weapon emplacements served as the last line of defense before the road led into the town proper. The searchlights would serve the militia throughout the skirmish, but Blake knew that she'd only hear the machine guns barking if the Grimm were winning the fight.

" _It matters not why the Grimm are coming. They_ are _coming, and it is up to us to defend everything we hold dear._ "

XCOM had to have seen the news about the attack, since it only took mere minutes before stations like the VNN were breaking the news. It had been some time since Blake and Yang split up to meet with her parents on Menagerie, so they didn't exactly know what Bradford's next stop was with the Avenger. Still, Blake needed to believe they were on the way to provide the firesupport that her countrymen so desperately needed right now. Sure, the militia and the White Fang would probably succeed at staving off the attack… but at what cost?

" _Those who can fight are already taking up arms to defend our corner of Remnant from both land and sea. Both the White Fang and ADVENT stand with our militia, ready and willing to put their lives on the line to defend our home._ "

As much as Blake hated to admit it, Menagerie needed ADVENT right now. It didn't matter if this played into Cinder's narrative about ADVENT being the good guys. Lives were at stake, and Blake wasn't going to be petty about where the help came from.

She looked to her left and right and could see the fear in the eyes of the guards that stood beside her as they stared into the blackness of the desert. Searchlights swept across the sands as their operators kept an eye out for the first wave of the battle to come. The grizzled veteran on her left, with scars stretching across his face, looked like he was old enough to have fought during the last major Grimm raid that befell Kuo Kuana when she was only a mere child. Surely he knew what horrors lurked above and below the shifting sands that comprised Menagerie's interior.

" _Those who cannot, I beg of you to remain inside the emergency shelters while your brothers and sisters in arms fight for everything you hold dear. Stay strong, stay safe, and this will be over before too long._ "

And yet, despite the fear, Blake also saw determination in the man's eyes. This was Kuo Kuana. His _home_. The one place on the entire goddamn planet worth fighting for, and he wasn't about to let the Grimm burn it down to ashes.

"We'll get through this." Blake assured him, "We have something worth fighting for."

The guardsman looked back at Blake with a smile, "I know, Lady Belladonna. Thank you."

A streak of black and white flashed across one of the searchlights, and the warning sirens started their whining crescendo within seconds. Floodlights illuminated the battlefield, and the masses of small, agile Grimm sprinting across the sands towards the defensive line.

"Those aren't Beowolves." Yang observed, "Those look like _Dingoes_."

Indeed, they were small, dog-like Grimm that charged Kuo Kuana's defensive line. Very little bone armor adorned their bodies, but the familiar blood-red eyes and the glint of silvery teeth that reflected in the searchlights still caused the hairs on the back of Blake's neck to stand on end.

"Yeah." Blake agreed, "They're Canis."

The commander of the guard, a Captain Wardlow, wasn't about to let the dogs of war close in for melee unscathed.

" _OPEN FIRE._ "

The militia, the White Fang, ADVENT, and any of the townsfolk who could pull a trigger loosed a hailstorm upon the charging Grimm. The monsters crumbled under the fusilade, but more poured out of the inky darkness to replace those that were lost. The Menagerie fighters put up a valiant defense, and Blake was impressed that the weapons fire managed to hold off the Grimm for a solid minute, but nobody was under the delusion that the creatures of evil could be kept at bay indefinitely.

" _BRACE FOR BOMBARDMENT._ "

Bless those Atlesian warships. The defenders hunkered down as they kept shooting while shells rained down upon the field from on high. The battlefield churned as shells cratered the sand, and swathes of demonic dogs were obliterated as they surged forward towards their prey. Dunes rose and fell under the might of the Atlesian navy, and a cheer erupted from the defenders at sight of such an impressive display of power.

And yet, it was _still_ not enough.

" _MELEE._ "

The shelling continued, but more and more of the dogs were slipping through the volleys and closing into deadly range with the defenders. Razor teeth flashed as the Canis surged forward, their maws open and hungering for flesh.

Rifles were replaced with swords, spears, and axes moments after the command was given, and a guttural yell erupted from the defensive line as they surged forward to meet their assailants. Yang (once again equipped with two Penny-grade prosthetics) blasted her way forward and landed the first strike against the abyssal horde. The skull of her first victim exploded, and she ducked under the leaping counterattack of its brother before she grabbed it by the throat and slammed it into one of the spiked barriers. Blake took a moment to appreciate the artistry in Yang's fluid motions as she blasted from one dog to the next. She pulled Gambol Shroud off her back as she charged forward and joined her partner in the fray.

The Canis were every bit as vicious as Blake remembered them. While the Menagerie ranks were skilled fighters, it didn't take long before cries of pain broke out as the hounds' teeth found their mark. The danger sense granted by her Aura was Blake's saving grace as she twisted, juked, and rolled out of reach time and again. The lack of significant bone armor meant that the monsters fell quickly enough, but their sheer numbers made it obvious that a battle of attrition would not end well for the faunus.

Blake's commlink buzzed. " _Bumblebee, this is Hogarth. I've located where Mishka is being held. They have posted a frustrating number of guards, so it will take time to get inside undetected._ "

A pang of guilt surged through Blake's conscience as she heard the operative's update. Misha probably wouldn't be in such a dire situation if it weren't for Blake's stupidity. She planned to track down Ilia at some point and have some words with her, assuming Yang was wrong about Ilia being part of the terrorist operation.

She hoped to whatever gods were listening that Yang was wrong.

A series of whistling sounds caused Blake to look up in time to see a volley of flaming explosives sail overhead and crash into the midst of the Canis onslaught. Craters of fire blasted holes in the Grimm legion and offered a brief respite for the frontline fighters. Blake, Yang, and a few of Menagerie's homebrewed huntsmen-esque warriors held the line to allow the militia to pull the wounded back to safety and bring in fresh guardsmen to replace them.

"So far so good." Yang called out as she gave another dog a new chest cavity, "These guys aren't so tough once you get the hang of 'em."

"Stop tempting fate to make things worse." Blake sighed. The warning came too late, however, when Blake heard the watchmen in the towers announce the next horror coming their way.

"Cockatrices!" They called out. Sure enough, Blake could see the tall, two-legged birds bounding across the battlefield and weaving between the hounds as they closed in on the fray.

The Canis were dangerous because they could rend flesh with ease if one wasn't careful. The Cockatrices, however, made it harder to defend against the dogs. What those stupid birds lacked in killing power, they made up for in a flurry of feathers and legs that made it hard for their victims to focus on the true threat that came with them. The fact that they could take the last few yards in a bounding leap made it that much harder to kill them before they became a problem.

" _Warriors!_ " The commander shouted, " _Focus on the Canis!_ "

"Yang," Blake called out, "We need to keep the birds off their backs."

Her partner paused to slap a fresh set of shotgun shells into her weapon before she saluted Blake with a grin. "On it."

The first Cockatrice that leapt over the fire fields on its way towards the militia was launched sideways with a pained squawk as Yang crashed into it mid-air before winding her other fist and driving the monster straight down into the dirt. Blake whipped her pistol out to grab the second one by the ankle and yank it down before it could reach the militia. From there, the two of them worked to hold back as many as they could while the guard dealt with wave after wave of the Canis.

But they could only do so much.

Although the Cockatrices cracked one by one under Yang's brutal assault, the time it took to kill three allowed one to slip through and cause problems for the defenders. Blake would pull the Grimm back whenever she could, but it was getting harder and harder to keep up as time -and the Grimm assault- marched onwards.

Even with their training and their aura-enhanced fitness, the battle of attrition was taking its toll as Blake felt her strength start to flag.

"This would-" _BANG._ "... be a hell of a lot-" _CRACK._ "... easier if Ruby-" _BANG._ "... was here."

"I know what you mean," Blake grunted as she yanked a runaway Cockatrice away from the frontline. "I miss your sister too."

"ADVENT is falling back!"

The words sent a chill through Blake's spine, and she looked back at the frontline. Sure enough, she could see the helmeted soldiers dropping back. The shelling from the Atlesian ships had stopped, too. It didn't look like the ADVENT soldiers were panicking as they retreated, though withdrawal was having that effect on the rest of the soldiers left behind.

"We're dead!"

"This is getting out of control!"

"What do we do?!"

" _TACTICAL RETREAT!_ " Wardlow ordered, " _GUNS OUT FOR COVERING FIRE. BACK UP TOWARDS THE TOWERS._ "

The soldiers didn't need to be told twice. The ones out front ducked and scrambled towards the defensive line while bullets whizzed past to drop the dogs hot on their heels. Yang crushed the skull of one more Cockatrice before beating an explosive retreat back towards the rest of the soldiers. As the frontline fell back within range of the watchtowers, the tripwires were pulled taut and the operators revved up their automatic weaponry to begin tearing through the Grimm giving chase.

As the guns sprayed death to keep the Grimm at bay, Blake and Yang caught their breath and fell back to the Captain.

"What happened with ADVENT?" Blake asked.

The man glanced back towards the town. "They said something about getting recalled back to the docks. Same with our air support. I don't doubt that something serious is going on over there if our big guns got rerouted… but it's going to hurt pretty bad unless we get something to replace them, and soon."

"Uhhh… sooner would be better." Yang commented, pointing out into the darkness, "What the hell are those?"

Eight spindly legs, easily two stories tall, stepped into view of the searchlights. Bleached white talons dug into the sand and razor-sharp mandibles clicked in anticipation as the monstrosity lurched forward. Two scythe-like claws flexed and Blake caught a view of the jagged, armored back of the horrific spider. The abdomen, however, was completely exposed, revealing a bulging, roiling, sac that sent a shiver running down Blake's spine.

"Fuck me," the Captain whispered before keying his comm, "Command, we've got Striders in Sector Four! Requesting immediate backup!"

Several seconds passed before Ghira answered, " _Any and all soldiers not engaged with hostiles, Sector Four is in dire need of help. Repeat, all available firepower is needed at Sector Four._ "

" _ADVENT has its hands full with the aquatics, Chieftan._ " A second voice answered, " _I am sorry._ "

" _Then XCOM will deal with the Striders._ "

The mere sound of Bradford's voice on the comms almost caused Blake to collapse with relief.

" _Sector Four,_ " Central continued, " _We'll need a flare of some kind to locate your position. Light the candle, and we can drop the hammer._ "

Blake was more than happy to oblige.

* * *

" _Strike Teams, we are one minute out from the drop zone. Actuals, Readiness Check._ "

" _Strike One is good to go, Captain._ " Annette called out, " _Kingfisher suits are prepped, and safeties are on._ "

" _Strike Two is ready._ " Ruby added, " _Suits are likewise ready for drop._ "

" _Strike Three is all aboard the Bullhead._ " Fonseca confirmed, " _We stand ready to support._ "

" _Strike Four is set._ " Samuelson finished, " _Half the squad is onboard the Mako, other half is ready to drop with Hammer._ "

" _Great._ " Beagle answered, " _Keep those Dust rounds loaded, people. We can't afford to use Gauss munitions unless your Actuals authorize it. Hammer, how are we looking?_ "

"Jetboots are hot, and all systems are nominal." Ryder called out. He checked the latest addition to his GUI and added, "Kids are in the backseat, and the landing shocks are functional. Gizmo and I are ready for some old fashioned party crashing."

Shen's latest additions to the Odin were intended to improve its role as a mobile command center. Part of that included the addition of fold-out jump seats to let a small detachment of operatives deploy with the supersized MEC. Not that Ryder's suit was the only one that had a new upgrade - He looked over to see Gizmo holding her arm out as a pale blue shield of hard light flickered on in front of her frame.

" _Defensive tech is operational._ " Gizmo confirmed, " _Hammer is ready to drop._ "

" _In a moment, Hammer._ " Beagle assured, " _Skysnipers?_ "

" _Anchors are engaged, and Railguns are fully charged._ "

" _Gidjit? How are the automated defenses?_ "

" _25 PERCENT OPERATIONAL. WILL REQUIRE MANUAL INPUT._ "

" _... Good, I guess?_ "

" _SUFFICIENT._ "

" _Then it's high time to get this party started. Remember: showmanship is key. I know each and every one of you is a badass, but you gotta make sure the people of Menagerie see it._ " From below, Ryder saw a lone flare streak upwards towards the Avenger. " _Oh would you look at that, someone's gone and lit a flare. Hammer, you're clear to drop._ "

The operatives didn't need to be told twice. Ryder and Gizmo took off running before leaping off the side of the Avenger, followed by Ruby and Annette as they sailed into the night. The rest of Strikes One and Two were quick to follow their leaders, wings already deployed and jump jets burning brightly while the engines of the Bullhead and Mako spooled up as they prepared for liftoff. The air whipped past Ryder, and he took a moment so savor the sheer ridiculousness of airdropping a multi-ton superMEC into an active warzone. If Beags wanted inspiring flair, then he needn't look further.

"Menagerie Team, this is Tech Sergeant William Ryder. Stand by for titanfall."

" _Seriously, Ryder?_ "

But Ryder wasn't paying attention anymore. The engines of the Bullhead and Mako roared overhead while the drop teams cut through the air with a vengeance. He saw Annette and Ruby, two armored lawn darts, zip past him as they raced towards the AO. Several other Kingfisher operatives chose to take the dive feet-first, and Ryder offered a salute to Jane Kelly as they locked eyes.

" _Hammer team, be advised that Menagerie has multiple static defenses aimed at slowing down and killing Grimm._ " Blake warned, " _Recommend that all personnel drop into the clearing between the two sentry towers._ "

" _Understood, Sabretooth. Cavalry is on its way._ "

Rocketeers from Strike One and Two sailed past with their launchers primed for an opening salvo and were flanked by their shotgun-wielding escorts as they zeroed in on the battleground.

"Nichole-" Ryder started to say on the Odin's internal comm system.

" _It's Terry today, sir!_ "

Ryder chuckled. Right. 'Terry' for 'Terra.' "Terry, could we have some dropzone music? Just for the Odin, mind. Wouldn't want to distract the others."

" _Certainly! Do you have a preference?_ "

"Hmmm…" Ryder mused. Below them, the flashes of gunfire and the flames of the battlefield drew closer. "Why don't we go with our good friend, Sir DMX?"

" _An inspired choice!_ " Terry quipped, " _XCOM's anthem is perfectly suited for an operation like this!_ "

As the Odin's internal speakers started to shout, " _X GON' GIVE IT TO YA_ ," the automated airdrop protocol started to fire the jetboot rockets in preparation for landing. The landing party had finally drawn close enough to get a look at the number of creatures charging across the sands towards the town militia.

" _Oohhhhhh that is a lot of Grimm._ "

" _Sergeant,_ " Annette deadpanned, " _Do my ears deceive me, or am I hearing an XCOM operative complain about a target-rich environment?_ "

Silence.

" _That's what I thought. All teams, begin your strafing runs._ "

The Kingfisher Rocketeers loosed their payload, and Ryder watched the explosive warheads crash into the swarming creatures of Grimm. With the gunners and riflemen around him firing down into the fray, Ryder prepped the Odin's railguns and scanned for a suitable concentration of Grimm to strike.

" _Don't target the Strider abdomens!_ " Sabretooth warned over the comms, " _They carry Scarabs that will break out and swarm the defenders if they get torn. The ground teams are prepping equipment to bring them down so that the sacs can be safely burned with minimal casualties."_

" _Because of-fucking-course._ " Beagle sighed.

" _Captain, this is Dragunova of Strike Three. I believe we may have a faster way to neutralize the Striders. A backup plan will still be preferable, however._ "

" _I am the backup plan._ " Gizmo intoned.

There. A pack of dogs climbing up and over a rock formation.

"Firing solution, Terry." Ryder requested. His hud highlighted his targets as they raced towards the Menagerie team.

" _Done. You may fire when ready!_ "

The railguns kicked, and the rocks (and Grimm) disappeared in a plume of smoke and sand in short order. The MLRS snapped into position on the Odin's shoulder, and a salvo of rockets rained fury upon the hordes and lit up the battlefield once more.

 _X gon' give it to ya, he gon' give it to ya._

Ryder grinned as the Odin finally made landfall. The mech knelt down to allow the hitch-hiking operatives to drop down and join the fight before Ryder pulled himself up to his full height and stared down the charging foe.

"Oh, you're gonna get it, all right." He muttered, "Whether you like it or not."

* * *

Commander Wardlow stood, mouth agape, as he watched reinforcements fall quite literally from the heavens. Rockets and weapons fire rained down from the skies as the two Steel Warriors pounded the Grimm reinforcements. Some of the winged soldiers took up positions behind the barricades to rain fire and fury upon the monsters while others dropped directly into the thick of the hordes to lay waste from within. Several of the new fighters fell back to the Captain's soldiers and wasted no time in initiating triage for the wounded.

Orders were barked among the newcomers, snarky comments were made, but most importantly, _they kept coming_.

The engines of a Bullhead roared overhead as it came to a hovering position just behind XCOM's largest mech. Ropes dropped down from the near wing, and more troopers rappelled down and took up positions to push back against the Grimm.

* * *

"Velv, where did you get those aviators?"

Velvet looked back at Coco as the two stood in front of the starboard hatch of the Bullhead. Coco's first thought when she saw her partner donning the glasses was, 'why is she wearing shades during a night operation?' Then she remembered that judging Velvet for that would make Coco a hypocrite.

"Beagle gave them to me." Velvet answered as she slotted her camera onto her armor, "Said we'd look cute if we matched."

"He's not wrong!" Apollo called out from the other side of the ship as Firebrand took them down for a landing.

Coco snorted and readied her weapon as the hatch opened. Next to her, Velvet materialized a hard light copy of the weapon, and the two huntresses revved up and swept their cone of fire across the charging Grimm surging across the dunes while the other half of CFVY joined the rest of Strike Three on the ground. Black ooze and ivory bone fragments went flying as thousands of bullets, real and virtual, flew from the twin miniguns in the space of a minute, tearing the monsters to shreds as they crested the dunes.

Velvet looked over at her partner with one eyebrow raised behind her shades. "See? We're matching."

"Yeah." Coco admitted, grinning, "I guess we are."

Apollo rapped on the cockpit bulkhead. "Operatives are groundside, and the Vipers are itching to go Strider Fishing."

" _Copy that._ " Firebrand confirmed, " _I'll leave the port-side hatch open for our gunnery crew._ "

Velvet, now equipped with a hard light Plasma Dragon, gave Apollo a thumbs up.

"Gunnery crew sure appreciates your generosity, boss." Apollo relayed, "Let's roll."

* * *

" _Strike One, on me._ "

Jane Kelly touched down a few paces behind Annette among the shifting dunes, shotgun at the ready. Ruby had already gone ahead to be a murderous little cuisinart-of-war and cut a swath of destruction through the Grimm while Annette regrouped with the segments of Strike One and Strike Two that volunteered for the Deep Strike. Prior to the drop, Annette and Ruby had coordinated to have half of their operatives reinforce the militia's defenses while the other half worked to take down some of the approaching Striders before they reached the defensive line.

Ruby would push forward with her squad to clear out the nearby Grimm while Strike One's job would be to sweep in their wake, mop up any stragglers, and provide support if Strike Two got into trouble.

"They are the sword, and we are the shield." Annette had explained.

Easy enough. And with no shortage of Grimm, it wasn't like Jane would be bored cleaning up after Ruby. Sure enough, a Cockatrice that had somehow escaped Captain Rose's tornado of death leapt at the women of XCOM, only to be knocked away by a pair of reflexive shotgun blasts. The flightless bird screeched as its new trajectory made it stick beak-first into the sandy ground like a lawn dart, helplessly flailing its legs as it desperately tried to free itself.

ABRN landed next to Jane, with Arslan hitching a ride on Reese's board while Nadir and Bolin unhooked themselves from the other two XCOM operatives assigned to Strike One. Just in time for a wave of Canis to charge towards them.

" _ABRN, take down that bird!"_ Annette's voice rang in Jane's head.

The operatives didn't need instructions to know that their job was to lay waste to the dogs. Propulsion systems fired as the soldiers danced out of range of the Grimm while their rifles rattled death for the Canis.

Nadir raised his rifle and opened fire on the helpless Cockatrice, while the other two XCOM operatives followed suit. Reese flipped in mid-air and changed her hoverboard into twin pistols to start blasting away longside her teammate. As the Cockatrice's feathered carapace was torn apart by the volley of Dust, Arslan and Bolin flanked it from both sides and delivered two powerful Aura palm strikes, making the bird swell up like a balloon before imploding and sending feather fragments flying.

On the comms, Strike One's Reaper crew reported in. " _Strike One, this is Ricardo. We've acquired our first Strider target, and we're moving in to engage._ "

Annette shifted her shotgun into a sword and glanced back at the assembled team. "Alright, let's move team. It's open season."

* * *

"Ryder, this is Eightball. Coming in at your two o'clock to deliver the other half of Strike Four. Got a special request from our Reaper passengers for a special drop-off, first. Seems like they know what Elena had in mind for those Striders."

" _Copy that, Eightball._ _Happy hunting_."

Colonel Lucerno flipped the comm switch to address his passengers in the back, "Alright, we're coming up on one of those walkers now. I'm going to lower the hatch in a second, hover for five, and whoever plans to jump is going to have to be quick about it."

The pilot shredded a handful of lesser Grimm with his nose gun as he approached the large, ugly walker. The thing didn't look like it had any means of striking an airborne target, but Eightball didn't want to take any chances. His Reaper, Alonso, assured Eightball that he and Vessira would be able to make the drop even if the Mako was thirty or forty feet above the target. And if that was the case, Eightball wasn't about to tempt fate by coming in any closer.

"Here we go. Dropping the hatch… now." He flipped the proper switch on his control panel, and he felt the hydraulics hiss as they actuated the ramp. "Clearing out in three… two… one."

" _They're clear, sir._ " One of the operatives reported, " _Literally vanished as soon as they had sight of the target._ "

Well, might as well check on them and help if he could. Eightball gunned the engine and drifted into a wingover to get eyes on the Strider. His eyes grew wide when he saw the Reapers, secured to the top of the monster via the armored sections adjoining the vulnerable sac, with their arm drills buried in between the armored plates of the Strider's shoulder. Whatever they were doing, the walker _definitely_ didn't like it.

"Fuuuuuuuucking hell…" He muttered as he watched the first leg buckle, then the second. The saboteurs dematerialized moments before the lifeless husk crashed into the sand.

" _Command, this is Eightball… Plan A for the Striders is looking pretty good. We might need to go with Plan Gizmo if too many show up, but… well, it's a good thing the Reapers are on our side._ "

* * *

"Unbelievable…" the Captain whispered. In less than a minute, XCOM had deployed several squads and set up a killzone far more effective than anything he could have hoped to muster. The automated weapons from the watchtowers still rattled and the searchlights still swept for new threats, but both his militia and the reinforcements from the White Fang had a chance to rest and lick their wounds while XCOM crushed the Grimm.

And even there, XCOM's support was invaluable. A man who identified himself as Fonseca had dropped out of the Bullhead and joined the other two medical soldiers in treating the wounded while coordinating communications with the rest of XCOM's fireteams.

And then there was this Captain Rose. The huntress who identified herself as 'Yang' had given one shout of, " _THAT'S MY SISTER!_ '" before she ran off to join the caped soldier out in the field of Grimm. Lady Belladonna approached the militia Captain afterwards to explain who Ruby was, and to assure him that Sector Four was in good hands now that she had deployed to the field.

As the railguns and automatic weapons echoed in the background, the Captain asked Blake, "So this… this XCOM. Is this the sort of stuff they did during the Battle of Vale?"

Lady Belladonna nodded. "And more. As Captain Teasdale said during his interview with VNN, they prevented the Amity Colosseum from crashing into the city. They defended and evacuated the festival's fairgrounds with minimal civilian casualties. They established and maintained a safe zone in the city in the aftermath. This? This is what XCOM does."

Speechless, Wardlow could only nod as he surveyed the battlefield. XCOM's fighter craft raced overhead as they strafed the sands, cutting a line of destruction through the Grimm ranks. Brightly-colored Huntsmen and Huntresses surged forward to push the Grimm back and away from the sentry towers, and operatives repositioned to provide them with continual fire support. And in the far distance, the silhouetted form of a terrifying Strider let out a cry of death, as it suddenly keeled over and collapsed, crushing any Grimm unfortunate enough to be underneath its mass.

"Amazing…"

" _Captain, we're reading some seismic activity. Coming from the desert._ "

The Captain sighed. Well, at least his sector was in a much better position to handle _that_ particular bit of news.

"Lamnidae?" Lady Belladonna asked.

"Lamnidae." The Captain confirmed.

" _Be advised, XCOM. We have sand sharks inbound. Requesting all operatives in the field to fall back._ "

" _Are you_ fucking _kidding me?_ "

The militia Captain agreed with Captain Teasdale's sentiment.

* * *

Hogarth let out a steady breath as he watched the doorway he knew led into the tunnel network. With the battles raging on both the water and desert fronts, most ready-and-able fighters had taken up arms and rushed to defend their homes.

Except, curiously, for the few that Hogarth had almost crashed into on his first attempt at breaching the tunnels.

They wore the mark of the White Fang, and yet Hogarth knew that Sienna Khan had ordered all of her fighters to defend Kuo Kuana. Were they a splinter cell that she didn't know about? With a group as radical as the Fang, it was hardly surprising that some members might believe that they knew better than their leaders. Whatever the reason, these soldiers clearly had no intention of joining the fight, and Hogarth suspected he knew why.

The question, then, was how to get past them? He could try moving up to the wall, blending in, and knocking to draw them out. Except they would be looking for whoever made the noise, and his camouflage didn't work too well at close range. He could also try going in guns blazing, but that would likely result in Mishka's death, and his own survival wouldn't be certain, either. He could try searching for another entrance, but not only was there the possibility of that entrance (if it even existed) being equally well-guarded, he didn't exactly have the luxury of time.

Just as Hogarth was preparing to go with Plan A, he heard the familiar call. It wasn't one that was unique to Earth, but it was also not one indigenous to Menagerie. It was also a call he'd taught a certain covert operative because she was a fan of dark humor.

It was a raven's call.

Evidently, the sound had also attracted the attention of at least one guard inside the entrance, as a pair of large men stepped out to examine the noise. They passed by Hogarth's hiding spot, and he took the opportunity to slip closer to the entrance. As he watched the two guards approach the sound of the noise, he saw something (a rope?) fly out of nowhere to yank one into a small alley with a yelp. As the other turned to look for the source of the commotion, a shadow solidified behind him and delivered a solid haymaker to the side of his skull.

While the masked figure dragged the unconscious faunus into the alley, Blake decloaked a few feet to Hogarth's left.

"Let's make this quick." She muttered, "Yang's itching to get back to the fight."

"You didn't have to come." Hogarth commented.

Blake shook her head as the two of them watched Yang move towards them along with the masked figure and… was that a lamia? "We made a promise. And we don't intend to break it."

Yang gave Hogarth a thumbs up once she reached his cover. "You can take point with Rossal and Nieve. I'm mostly here to help when things get loud, and Blake is helping me be sneaky."

Hogarth looked over at the two figures staring back at him from the entranceway. His eyes weren't deceiving him. That was _definitely_ a lamia.

"... Yeah, it's a long story, apparently." Yang said, following Hogarth's stare, "But these Reapers are really good at the whole stealth thing."

Good enough for him. Hogarth pulled out his shortblade, offered a quick nod to his new companions waiting for him at the entrance, and the three of them set off down the stairs.

The tunnel was damp, and the lighting was low, which certainly helped Hogarth blend in with the shadows. The Reapers, however, were on a whole different level. They may as well have _been_ the shadows. He knew they were there, and yet the only way he could actually see them was to stare directly at their forms. Otherwise, his eyes just simply didn't pick up on their existence.

His shadowy squadmates stopped moving, and Hogarth heard the sound of footsteps a few moments later. A pair of guards stepped out of an adjoining tunnel, and the human Reaper vanished into. Hogarth only realized where the woman had gone when one of the guards gasped as the Reaper materialized behind him to throw a chokehold. The lamia coiled around the guard's companion and clamped an arm around his mouth to keep him from crying out, and both guards were disabled less than a minute later. Now that he had a chance to get a look at one of the guards in the low light, Hogarth could see that he wore the emblem of the White Fang on his shoulder, but his attire looked nothing like the standard uniform for the organization.

Curious.

The trio continued down the tunnel network, with Hogarth taking the lead as his bullet tracker kept him on the right path (for the most part, anyway).

"We're getting close." He muttered, as the vibrations from his tracking device grew more frequent. The number of passing guards had sharply dropped to zero, which concerned Hogarth. Then again, perhaps this part of the network was off the usual beaten path. The trio slipped around one last corner to see a pair of guards flanking a metal door.

Ah.

Hogarth held up a hand to stop Blake and Yang from rounding the corner into view of the guards, and he fell back with the Reapers to formulate a plan.

Yang mimed a small explosion with her hands, asking, _Is it time to go loud?_

Hogarth shook his head, then mimed back, _Soon. Two guards and a door._

Yang grinned.

She'd always told Hogarth how much she wanted to earn her wings as a Door Kicker.

* * *

A/N: I've only got one thing I'd like to mention in my closing A/N. It's something that Rambo mentioned in his chapter for Tales from the Avenger, but he and a couple of other members on the Discord server convinced me to let them launch a spinoff RP/RPG server that follows RWBY Within and (perhaps one day) Remnant Unknown. I've got my hands full with writing this story, so I don't run the game myself, but I've been keeping an eye on it and Rambo and Gryffen are doing an excellent job crafting an engaging story with their players. More than once, I've read something they wrote and asked myself, "Damn, why didn't I think of that?"

They asked me to bring this up primarily because they're getting close to the point in their campaign/story where RWBY comes tumbling out of the Hyperwave Relay. Rather than make those characters DM-controlled NPC's, they would rather have players in the game take up the mantle to breathe life into our favorite huntresses (well, Pyrrha's _my_ favorite, but I digress). If you have any interest at all in trying out for one of the roles, or even just playing as an operative in the campaign, I highly suggest you head over to the main Discord Server, say hello, and ask us about it.


	35. The Most Dangerous Game

A/N: So this was supposed to come out quite a bit sooner. At the same, this chapter had a lot of extra cool shit that ended up getting packed into it, so I'm not even mad. In fact, I don't think I've been this proud of a chapter in quite a while. The combat was a blast to write, and the finale felt incredibly satisfying.

Hope you enjoy it.

* * *

"I have to admit, Ozpin: your little XCOM friends are _quite_ competent."

Ozpin allowed himself a brief smile as he continued to watch the battle unfold from his seat next to Salem. He knew well enough not to try anything stupid during his 'house arrest,' as his captor enjoyed calling it, and so it allowed him small luxuries such as being invited to watch the unfolding events of the engineered terrorist attack and subsequent Grimm invasion over dinner. Then again, he also knew that Salem's actual reason for the invitation was to gloat and make him feel powerless as he watched her throw wave after wave of monsters at his allies.

"Are you really surprised?" He asked as one of the servants refilled his glass of wine.

Salem shook her head as she took another bite of her ribeye. "No. Although… I do wonder how they managed to be in the right place at the right time." She looked away from the menacing orb that floated in the middle of the table and cast a mildly accusing glance at her guest. "Is there something you aren't telling me, Oz?"

There she went with the tests again. And as always, Ozpin was obligated to play along. "You have me under constant surveillance wherever I go, and I know full well that if you caught me doing anything, you would not hesitate to use your nuclear option. Do you really think I would be callous enough to risk that just to give a tip to XCOM?"

"Good boy." Salem said with a smile as she returned her attention to the Seer's reflection. "But that still leaves me with the important question of what I'm going to do about our friend Bradford."

"You mean because his arrival hindered ADVENT from taking all the glory?"

Salem stared at Ozpin, and he wondered if he should have used a slightly less patronizing tone. "And also because it doesn't let ADVENT's withdrawal from the desert front result in such a tragedy. Cinder could have hammered that heartbreaking lesson on the airwaves if your little tin soldiers didn't come along to ruin her fun. Very good, Ozpin, you _do_ have functioning eyes."

Ozpin chose not to rise to Salem's barb, and the two of them instead returned their attention to the battle. Ozpin had to admit Salem had made sure ADVENT had a very good reason to withdraw to the docks. The fighting there was certainly bloody. Even if XCOM saved the day in the desert, Cinder could proclaim plenty of footage showing ADVENT's heroics that she could play for her new friend on the VNN.

But between ADVENT and XCOM, it was very clear which of the two was merely a force of zealous, inspired volunteers and which was an elite company of commandos. Ozpin was impressed with all the groundwork Salem had laid over the years to allow ADVENT to spring up practically overnight, but all the resources in the world couldn't give Cinder's foot soldiers the raw experience that XCOM had earned in the crucible of their own war. Sure, several huntsmen had joined Cinder's cause. They were made into the commanding officers that directed the rank-and-file, but that didn't change the fact that the bulk of ADVENT's manpower was comprised of energetic neophytes. It was a point that Salem had grudgingly acknowledged several weeks ago, and one that Ozpin had quickly learned to never bring up again.

"Do you really have to do anything, though?" He asked. "While it's true that you don't get to cast XCOM in a negative light this time, you still prove that ADVENT should be trusted, and the whole thing throws a smokescreen over the organization's other, less pleasant operations."

Salem sighed dramatically, a sign that she was choosing to acknowledge Ozpin's point. "I suppose so, Oz. But you don't know me as well as you think you do if you expect me to let XCOM skate to an easy victory."

"Perish the thought." Ozpin quipped.

"Oh, you can act coy and sarcastic all you like, my friend. I suspect you'll be singing a different tune once you find out what I intend to throw at them."

Ozpin doubted that. "Whatever it is, they can handle it."

"My, my! Such _confidence_! I normally admire that in a man, you know, but it becomes a turnoff when it isn't tempered with humility. And besides… don't you know better to tempt me?"

She had a point. Ozpin bowed his head slightly and offered a well-practiced, "My apologies."

"That's what I thought. Now, I suggest you eat your steak. I suspect you won't have much of an appetite for it in a few minutes."

* * *

Open season didn't even begin to describe the chaos of Annette's battlefield. Even with Ruby forging ahead like a little red murderblender, there was still plenty left of the horde for the remainder of Strike One and Two to deal with. They managed to keep the chaff away from the Striders long enough for the Reapers to do their work, and Annette relished the sight of those spider abominations falling to the ground.

Over the comms, it sounded like the defensive line was handling the Striders well enough.

" _Bolos set!_ "

" _Target the closest Strider._ "

" _Aye, sir!_ "

The screeches echoing in the night from the frontline rose above the rattling of her squad's weapons. The birds were causing problems, but nothing that they couldn't handle.

 _Danger._

The gentle nudge from her backseat driver snapped Annette's attention back to her battle and the fact that the ground shuddered beneath her feet.

"Airborne. _Now!_ "

Jump jets fired, and huntsmen leapt into the air moments before another batch of those damnable sand sharks broke through the desert surface, teeth snapping loudly in search of a meal.

"Tell me what these things are called again!" Annette spat out as she leaped away.

"Lamnidae, apparently," Arlsan nervously huffed back.

Ah, yes, Annette thought bitterly.. Armored assholes that burrow beneath the shifting sands and moved as though they were swimming through water. The only exposed flesh was on their underbelly (usually hidden in the sand), between their armored back plates (a hard target to hit), and in their mouth (a _dangerous_ target to hit). Strike Two had already lost a pair of operatives when one of the fuckers bit off the leg of one soldier, which meant his partner had to jump jet him back to the medics stationed by the Odin.

Annette pivoted as she heard the sharks breach and pooled psionic energy into her hand and flung a psi lance at the closest monster. The mental energy passed through the armored plating on the shark's face and boiled its brains from within. A fusillade of weapons fire chorused from the other operatives as they took potshots of their own at the Grimm offensive.

 _Protect._

A quick survey of the skirmish showed Nadir scrambling in the sand, trying to outrun the shifting silhouette of another Lamnidae. Arslan was able to attach herself to Reese, and Bolin used his staff to vault himself out of harm's way. Nadir, though? He apparently didn't have time to hitch a ride with someone before the sharks arrived.

"Switch to Gauss, and keep firing!"

Annette's jets whined as she dove back towards the sand with her Kingfisher wings deployed. A nudge in her mind helped her roll out of the way of another shark as it tried to get the jump on her. Shotgun fire at her 4 o'clock caused Annette to look back and see Kelly flying in formation to assist with the rescue. Up ahead, she saw Nadir running and firing shots into the sand in a vain effort to slow down his stalker. From her position, Annette could see several other burrowed sharks turning to chase down the huntsman.

" _Strider down! Prepping firebombs to clear the Scarabs!_ "

" _Two more incoming!_ "

The squeal of a sand shark to her rear indicated that the operatives were able to bag another of the slippery monsters. Once they had a chance to equip their Grimm Killer ammo, Annette noticed that the armored sharks went down a little easier. Another boost from her jets put Annette ahead of the Grimm giving chase to Nadir. Jane unloaded her shotgun into the sand to slow the assailants down while Annette swooped in for the rescue. Nadir looked up in time to see Annette grab him under his arms and yank him into the sky.

"T-thanks." He muttered, embarrassed that he needed saving.

"Don't mention it." Annette said, banking into a hard left so that she could reposition Nadir somewhere away from the sharks. "We don't leave our own behind. Surely you've learned that by now."

The pitched battle raged, with XCOM working to keep the flailing Strider clear of Canis while also dealing with the sand sharks. One by one, the armored bastards fell, though not without inflicting their fair share of casualties. No deaths, thankfully, but Annette sent a psychic warning to Ruby that her defensive backup was starting to dwindle as operatives fell back to the medics.

 _Push._

And Annette still had her backseat driver giving her suggestions and guidance. _La Volonté_ cleaved another Canis in two as Kelly kept a second beast off her back. ABRN hustled in to assist the Reapers with their Strider target, with Arslan swinging around the monster's body while Bolin began to cripple its legs from below. Maybe it was One-Five's Adrenal Neurosympathy, but for a minute, the Major allowed herself to be lost to the chaotic bloodlust of the battlefield. More than once, her teams crossed paths with Captain Rose (who was busy letting out all of her frustration and rage on the seemingly unending supply of Grimm), and the two locked eyes and threw a small surge of psychic encouragement each other's' way.

The combat elation was short-lived, however, when even newer Grimm variants arrived.

Fliers.

They made their presence known when ABRN and the Reaper team had almost downed their second Strider target. As the hellish creature started to fall, some kind of oversized, leather-winged hellbat ripped through the Strider's vulnerable sac with its spiked tail and tore the membrane wide open. The Reapers reacted almost instantly, using their unique abilities to shadowstep away from the insect swarm pouring out of the creature's body. Arslan however, was thrown off-balance by the Strider's sudden lurching as it died.

 _Escape._

"I'm not leaving her behind." Annette muttered aloud as she fired her jets and prepared to help Reese rescue her team leader. She keyed her mic to scream the order, "Fall back!"

A pair of operatives grabbed Bolin and Nadir while Annette and Jane raced towards the Strider's decaying body… and the scarabs. Annette felt a second's worth of hope when she witnessed Reese swooping in beside her team leader in hopes of hauling Arslan to safety. That hope crumbled swifty when two scarabs leaped at Reese. The twin creatures collided with Reese, knocking her sidelong, and slinging Arslan just out of reach.

"Tossing a grenade." Kelly warned. She must have cooked it, because the fuse lasted just long enough for the explosive to fall into the closest tendril of the swarm before detonating.

" _Scarabs are loose._ " One of Annette's operatives warned on the comms, " _Some fucking birds came out of nowhere and tore one of the Striders open._ "

Jane's grenade stunned the insects long enough for the duo to scramble next to Arslan and Reese.

" _Sector Four, prep fire defenses to deal with the Scarabs. Watchtowers have identified the unknown fliers as Wyverns._ "

" _Wyverns?!_ " Beagle interjected over the comms. " _When did we get dumped into a game of Dungeons and Dragons?_ "

" _Dungeons and Wyverns, sir._ "

"We gotta move," Annette snarled, grabbing Arslan. She'd learned early on in her interactions with ABRN that Reese's board, while capable of a lot of things, was not good at moving quickly when it carried more than just Reese.

"No argument here," the skater girl agreed. She yelped as a few of the scarabs latched onto her arm and got to work on their latest meal. "Sooner would be better."

" _More Scarabs inbound! The Wyverns are tearing the Striders apart!_ "

The back of Annette's head tingled as Arslan strapped herself to the Major's suit, and she knew what her passenger was suggesting even without hearing a word. She pivoted around to look at the approaching swarm, pooled the chaotic energy in her mind, and unleashed it on the Strider's corpse.

A psionic void tore into existence, and the roiling vortex pulled the small bugs into its personal gravity well. The sound of reality rending in half filled the battlefield, followed by the crunching of chitin and the shrieking of scarabs. When the vortex reached critical mass it imploded, sending Grimm guts flinging everywhere and knocking the remaining nearby scarabs into oblivion.

Arslan had just enough time to whisper, "oh shit" before Annette fired the jets. The four operatives took off towards the rest of Strike One and Two as they fell back to the Odin. Wyverns attacked them as they flew. Annette's sixth sense allowed her to roll out of harm's way on several occasions as several bony spikes sailed past her flank. Jane pumped shotgun shells into their attackers whenever they flew close enough.

The Lieutenant grunted as a razor-sharp projectile grazed her calf and she fired back at the offender. "This is ridiculous."

 _DANGER._

Annette's skin crawled. Her passenger had never been that aggressive with a warning.

But then the ground shuddered, and the Major watched a shockwave ripple through the sand.

"Not ridiculous enough, it seems," she deadpanned.

" _The fuck was that?!_ "

" _... Oh no…_ "

" _Was it…?_ "

" _Chieftain Belladonna, Sector Four is in dire need of Atlesian support. The Gigas has awoken._ "

* * *

Ghira almost choked when he heard the report from Sector Four.

"The Gigas…?"

"That's not good." Sienna Khan muttered to his left.

The two of them stood in Kuo Kuana's equivalent of a command center. With an elevated view of the city and stocked with an array of communications and telemetry readouts, the city's leaders could mount a coordinated defense in the event of an emergency.

Such as this one.

A new warning flared up on one of their screens. The militia commander in charge of Sector One's defense at the docks raised an alarm with the same threat level as Sector Four's Gigas. And with the docks much closer to Kuo Kuana's civilians than the desert…

Ghira looked tersely over at Sienna as she hailed Sector One. "Commander Kolton. Report."

" _Lady Khan,_ " Kolton answered. " _Leviathans. Three of them. We spotted them less than a minute ago, and they are headed directly for the port._ "

"Shit."

"Agreed," Ghira declared with a heavy voice. "The Gigas is certainly a problem, but Leviathans would wreak unthinkable havoc on our people if left unchecked."

Sienna Khan seethed. "As much as I am loathe to admit it, we need all of Atlas's firepower to keep those monsters subdued."

Ghira nodded and pressed his mouth into a hard line. It meant he needed to deliver the bad news to Sector Four's commander.

"You won't be receiving Atlesian support, Wardlow," he said with a sigh. "Docks have a bigger problem, and therefore they get priority for our air support resources."

The commander swore.

" _Then we're as good as dead, sir. We've got Wyverns breaking open the Striders, which is causing enough panic among the soldiers. Finding out that we're on our own with the Gigas? It's… it's going to break them._ "

"You won't be on your own, Commander," Sienna interjected. Ghira looked over at her with a raised eyebrow as she continued, "you'll have me."

"Are you serious?" Ghira asked, incredulous.

" _I… you don't have to do that, ma'am._ "

"But I do," Sienna answered, already gathering her gear while Ghira continued to stare. "What kind of leader hides behind her warriors and demands that they throw down their lives for her?"

" _Err…_ "

"One that isn't me," she answered. "Keep fighting, Wardlow, and spread the word that Lady Khan is on the way."

" _Understood, my lady._ "

Sienna Khan looked firmly over at Ghira as she made her way to the door. "One of us needs to stay here and keep the defenses organized."

"My thoughts exactly," Ghira agreed. "I'm still surprised by your decision, though."

Sienna shrugged as she stepped through the doorway.

"It's about time that I find out for myself how XCOM fights."

* * *

"Let's try this one more time," Ilia hissed, "and I'll remind you that lying will earn you the tip of my sword."

Mikhail groaned. The few places that his captor had already nicked him were starting to ache. Whatever poison she coated her weapon with, it was potent. "Threats won't get you want you want, Ilyushka. What I've told you already is the truth."

" _Stop calling me that,_ " Ilia warned.

"Fine. Ask me your questions."

"Where are you from?"

Mikhail rolled his eyes. "Earth."

"That's not a real place."

"Yes, it is."

"Why is XCOM here?"

"We're stuck here after we travelled through a wormhole to help during the Vytal catastrophe."

The Russian winced as Ilia lashed out and nicked him again, this time on the shoulder.

"Keep lying to me, and the pain will start to get unbearable."

"Have you listened to even a single word I've said?"

"Let's just kill him," one of the other faunus called out from across the room.

"That would be a fatal mistake." Mikhail deadpanned.

The faunus laughed. "Why? Because of your 'Night Witches'? The ones that 'we will never hear coming'? It was a good story, old man, but we're not stupid."

A knock sounded on the door. The faunus froze. Mikhail raised an eyebrow at the man who was laughing at him mere seconds ago. "Your door guard is calling for you. Aren't you going to answer him?"

The knock repeated itself, and the room's occupants started to cast awkward looks at one another.

"Come now. Don't keep him waiting. It sounds… _urgent_." Mikhail emphasized. An idea occurred to him. "Unless… could it be that you have a secret knock, and that wasn't it? My, oh my…"

"Shut it, old man."

Ilia positioned herself behind Mikhail, held her weapon up against his throat, and nodded at the agent closest to the door. The muscled faunus nodded stiffly and lumbered towards the entryway. He reached out to grab the handle, then hesitated.

 _ **BANG**_.

The door shattered, and a fiery-colored human exploded into the room a split second later. Mikhail watched as one Yang Xiao Long crashed into the hapless agent before her momentum (and a well-timed blast from her gauntlet) carried the two of them out of sight. He felt the ground shudder as his rescuer apparently crashed into the far wall. While Mikhail couldn't see the reaction of his captor, he felt her weapon go slightly slack against his neck before he heard Yang cock her gauntlets for dramatic effect.

"Knock knock, assholes!" The huntress greeted, and all hell broke loose.

A _crack_ from the darkness beyond the doorway echoed, and Ilia dropped her weapon with a yelp. Mikhail immediately started to awkwardly hop his way towards the door while Yang carried on with her explosive rampage.

"Oh no you don't!" one of the agents yelled. Mikhail looked over in time to see a shadow materialize behind his would-be assailant and deliver a swift pistol whip to the base of the agents skull. The bindings tying Mikhail to the chair came loose, and he heard Blake whisper in his ear, "Are you okay?"

Mikhail rubbed his wrists, "This Ilia girl stuck me with a poisoned-"

" _Ilia?_ "

Mikhail raised an eyebrow. His heart skipped a beat. He could only recall maybe twice when Blake used that tone. "Yeah. You know her?"

But Blake wasn't looking at Mikhail anymore. And if looks could kill…

" _ILIA!_ "

The young woman in question flinched as Blake screamed her name, and then her eyes grew wide as she realized that her friend was here. Blake let loose a primal yell, flung Gambol Shroud's grapple, and yanked herself into melee range of her once-friend. It was all Ilia could do to defend herself from Blake's brutal onslaught.

Mikhail grabbed the club off of the unconscious agent and slipped into the shadows as the firestorm that called itself Yang drew in the attention of everyone else in the room.

"I hoped to _everything_ that I held dear that you weren't a part of this!" Blake shouted, "I wanted to believe that you, of all people, would respect all that my father worked for!"

" _I did what I had to do!_ " Ilia shot back as she danced around Blake's strikes, "I respected your father, but he's lost sight-"

Blake bodychecked Ilia. Mikhail assumed that Ilia was keeping an eye on her sword and wasn't expecting the charge. A tactical mistake, for sure. Blake's furious shove cut Ilia off mid-sentence.

"Don't you _dare_ finish that thought, Ilia! This was a terrorist attack, and you are a part of it!"

Blake's words, it seemed, had given Ilia a second wind. "And what was Amity?!" Ilia roared back. "How can you justify working with these _monsters_ after that?"

The two women continued to clash, each driven by a combination of rage and adrenaline. Mikhail watched as, one by one, Hogarth and his shadowy friend took down the other agents in the room (he was amused to see that Hogath chose to shoot Jane Doe in the ass again) while they tried to assault Yang. Blake and Ilia only had eyes for each other, however.

"XCOM saved lives!"

"XCOM murdered Adam!"

Their weapons locked as the two huntresses muscled for the upper hand. From his angle, Mikhail could see the cold fury brewing on Blake's face as she glared daggers at Ilia.

" _I killed Adam, Ilia._ "

Ilia froze long enough for Blake to deliver a knee to her gut, before following up with a spinning kick to the torso that sent Ilia spiraling to the ground."He murdered my friends in cold blood-"

"Cold isn't how I would describe it." Mikhail muttered to himself.

"And he tried to murder my partner!"

Ilia, bruised and broken on the floor, stared at Blake. Her chameleon skin rippled and flashed with nearly every color combination imaginable, cycling from blue to red to green to orange as she tried to process this new information.

"He wasn't who you thought he was, Ilia." Blake continued in outrage, "And I know you're not who you think you are, either."

Ilia hesitated, if only for a moment, then gritted out a terse, "You're wrong."

Before either Blake or Mikhail could react, Ilia snatched up her sword and whipped it out at Yang. It was pure luck that Yang cocked her fist back at the right moment, and the blade embedded itself in her forearm. She looked back in surprise, then grabbed the whip-blade. A dangerous grin spread across her face as sparks crackled within the impact site on her arm.

"You'll have to do better than that, bub."

Again, Ilia froze. This time, a rope (a whip? Mikhail wasn't sure) shot out from the darkness shrouding the far end of the room, wrapped around Ilia's leg, and yanked her through the air. Mikhail followed her trajectory, and almost choked at the sight of the snake/human/thing that was now wrapping itself around Ilia to keep her constricted. Neither Blake nor Yang appeared to be bothered by the newcomer, though, so he had to believe that it was on their side. The two huntresses finished putting down the last of Ilia's agents as Mikhail walked (with a slight limp, much to his dismay) over to the ringleader's struggling form.

"I suppose I was wrong about one particular detail of my story." He said, shrugging as the snake deftly put its victim into a sleeper hold. "The Night Witches did come for me, but they didn't come silently."

Ilia struggled against the arm choking her, but both of her hands were bound at her side.

"Take it easy, little Ilyushka…" Mikhail said, "Why fight the inevitable?"

Indeed, it only took a few more seconds for the struggling to stop and for the body to go limp. The snake waited another couple of heartbeats before releasing its hold and unbinding Ilia. Despite her burning anger less than a minute ago, Blake rushed over to take Ilia from the snake. Her face, Mikhail noticed, brimmed with sadness.

"C'mon," Yang said, pulling the sword out of her arm with annoyance as she rejoined the group. "Let's get you out of here, Misha. Everything is going to hell in a handbasket outside, but I think Firebrand could spare a minute take you and Ilia back up to the Avenger."

"I won't say no to that." Mikhail answered, rubbing his shoulder. "Probably a good idea to get the Doc to look at these wounds, anyway."

The extraction team slipped out of the interrogation room, leaving the unconscious bodies of the other agents behind.

* * *

" _Scarabs inbound, Ryder!_ " Terry chirped.

Ryder saw them on his HUD. Quite a few of the nasty buggers, along with a bunch of those stupid Wyverns who were pulling into a dive-

"EVERYBODY DOWN!"

The Odin's arm snapped forward into a bracing position, and the hard light shield flared to life. Gizmo's shield was enough to cover her MEC and maybe one or two other operatives, on account of the light-weight, mobile nature of her Vanguard suit The Odin, however, did not have such limitations.

Bone shards collided against the transparent shield, which rippled with each impact. A small indicator on Ryder's HUD popped up to provide him a readout of the power generator's capacity to keep the shield online before overloading. The Wyvern attack did cause a small spike in the readout, but it wasn't anything that the suit couldn't handle.

"Terry, how's our MLRS looking?"

" _Fully loaded, Ryder!_ "

"You got a lock on those Scarab swarms?"

" _Yes sir!_ "

The splinter storm died down, and Ryder lowered his shield.

"Then you may fire when ready."

Eightball raced after the Wyverns as they flew overhead moments before the Odin unleashed a salvo of microrockets that fanned out and detonated across the swarm's front in plumes of orange and red

" _Central, this is BFG. We've recovered Misha and an interrogation subject. Requesting evac for them both to the Avenger before returning to the fight._ "

" _Acknowledged, BFG. Get them to the Odin's location. Firebrand can arrange the pickup._ "

As the smoke cleared, a very much reduced swarm continued towards the defensive line. Gouts of flame erupted from several frontline thrower-wielding militiamen and scorched the Scarabs into ashes. From the rear, the crack of sniper rifles echoed as XCOM's marksmen worked with Eightball to take down the fliers. On the ground, XCOM's huntsmen pushed past the Scarab swarm to meet the Canis and Cockatrices head-on while the militia dealt with the bugs.

" _Shit._ " Eightball cursed, " _These guys are a helluva lot harder to deal with than Nevermores. At least with them you know you're safe if you're above them._ "

"How are we looking with those Scarabs, Terry?" Ryder asked. He aimed his cannons skyward and joined the Snipers in giving Eightball a helping hand.

" _They are thinning out, Ryder! I have also identified the remaining members of Strike One and Two returning from the field._ "

Ryder looked across the sands to see the outlines of his winged allies lit up by the suit's HUD.

"Well, Yatsu and Fox are doing a good job keeping the ground clear of the dogs and chickens." Ryder said, "That's about as good of a welcome mat as they're gonna get-"

The ground shuddered, causing Ryder to stop talking. The volume of gunfire also dropped significantly as a good portion of the defenders paused to determine if what they had just felt was real or imagined. The second shudder, easily stronger than the last, told Ryder that he _definitely_ wasn't imagining things.

Seconds later, a rolling murmur spread through the faunus ranks, and Ryder could hear one word repeated over and over again.

 _Gigas._

Commander Wardlow's voice called out, "Retreat back to the watchtowers immediately!"

Ryder and Gizmo synced up and unleashed hell, providing heavy covering fire while the huntsmen and shotgun-toting operatives fell back. Several of the Menagerie soldiers were still dealing with the last vestiges of the Scarab swarm. Overhead, the Mako streaked by as it danced with the Wyverns.

" _Ground Team,_ " Bradford called out over comms, " _We're getting word from Menagerie's command channels that a new contact is emerging. Something on par with Vale's Dragon._ "

About a hundred meters out, the sand erupted as the maw of a giant wurm burst from below. Layered, bony armor covered the entire length of the monster's exposed body, and the rows and rows of teeth that ringed the creature's circular mouth gnashed and quivered as gravity pulled the behemoth back to the sand with yet another rumbling shudder.

"Have you ever read Dune, Central…?"

Beagle answered for Central, " _You have_ got _to be shitting me._ "

The monster roared, vibrating the night air with its energetic expulsion.

"Negative, Captain." Ryder answered, "This thing is going to be a bitch and a half to take down."

" _Strike Five and Six. Prep for deployment._ " Bradford ordered, " _Sergeant Xiao Long? I think we'll need you to join Agent Sokolov on the flight back to the Avenger. As skilled as Talos is, something tells me that we're going to need a Devastator MEC pilot that can pack a supernatural punch._ "

"... _With pleasure, sir._ "

"Terry, patch me into the externals, if you'd be so kind."

" _Oh! A rallying speech!_ " Terry cooed, " _You can start whenever you like._ "

The external speakers on the Odin vibrated as Ryder's voice boomed across the defensive line.

" _STAND FAST, BROTHERS AND SISTERS IN ARMS. WHILE THIS DEMON MAY BE FORMIDABLE, YOU HAVE XCOM FIGHTING BY YOUR SIDE, AND WE WILL DIVE HEAD-FIRST INTO THE JAWS OF HELL ITSELF IF THAT'S WHAT IT TAKES TO SEND THAT MONSTER BACK TO THE SHADOWS WHERE IT BELONGS._ "

The XCOM operatives whooped in response to Ryder's declaration.

"Warriors of Menagerie _!_ " The militia commander called out, "Take heart: Lady Khan herself is on her way to join us in the fight against the Gigas!"

A wave of murmurs rippled through the faunus ranks at the news, and while Ryder didn't exactly know much about Sienna Khan beyond her being the leader of the Fang, it sounded like she carried incredible respect among the community of Kuo Kuana.

" _Gunners,_ " Annette ordered, " _Fill the air with enough firepower to drown those goddamn Wyverns in lead. We need air superiority if we're going to take this maggot down._ "

"Warriors!" Wardlow shouted, "Forward with XCOM!"

The floodlights on the Odin swept across the sands as the might of Menagerie boldly took the offensive. Canis came into view and were quickly cut down by rifles, shotguns, and railguns. The huntsmen took up positions alongside the operatives and militiamen. Taking point would put them in the line of fire, and standing with the gunmen would better allow them to protect their ranged fighters against the handful of Grimm that might slip past the bullet storm.

" _Central, this is Firebrand. Package is on-board, and we're on our way back to the Avenger. Have the first Strike team prepped for boarding in one minute._ "

" _Copy that, Firebrand. Operatives are standing by in the flight deck for your arrival._ "

Coco's minigun flared to life and a spray of bullets swept across the dunes ahead of Ryder as the Bullhead lifted off. At the same time, a wave of munition rose up from the ground team as XCOM's heavy weapon specialists targeted the Wyverns to keep them off of Firebrand's back. With the Bullhead airborne, Ryder took his cue to begin the advance.

"Keep those jetboots hot." Ryder warned his mechanized companion, "Burrowing Chryssalids was one thing, but this fucker is on a completely different level."

Gizmo popped off a shot at a Canis racing towards them and gave a nod to Ryder.

Annette rallied her squad from their rear. " _Strike One, push with the Odin. We don't know if there are more sharks lurking, so Pegasus protocol is still active._ "

Ryder continued his advance as the jump troopers fell in line on his flanks. The Odin kept one arm braced in front, ready to power the hard light shields if any Wyverns or Sand Sharks tried to assault the spearhead formation. Jetpacks fired at regular intervals as Strike One and Two frog-hopped alongside the MECs, using their height advantage to rain fire down upon the Grimm racing towards them from the desert.

New kinds of Grimm made an appearance as the team pushed into the desert. Small-scale Deathstalkers skittered towards the frontline, and the near-panicked reaction of the Menagerie natives was all the convincing Ryder needed to order the XCOM units to prioritize them over other threats. Terry flipped the shoulder-mounted Phoenix Cannon into its active position and started to zero in on and fire concentrated bursts at the oncoming Canis while the operatives focused on the new scorpions. It reminded Ryder that he was missing Gidjit as his second co-pilot. Usually the Cyberdisc handled the Phoenix Cannon while Terry worked with Ryder to develop firing solutions for the Railguns and explosive payloads. Still, the Remnant AI did her job admirably, and with every droning buzz from the weapon, another wild dog was shredded into exploding bits.

"Terry, I hope you don't mind my saying so since you utterly kick ass, but it doesn't feel the same without Gidget."

Terry actually chuckled. "I don't mind at all, friend-William. I feel the same way! We make a great team. Should we tell him when we return?"

Ryder couldn't help but grin. He gladly spoke one word that held more meaning than anyone outside their trio could understand. "Absolutely."

Striders continued their spindly march across the sands, and the Reapers advancing alongside Ryder used their unique talents to neutralize the threats without triggering a Scarab swarm. With the Wyverns dogfighting with Eightball in the desert's starry sky, there was little risk of the abdomen sacs splitting open.

The Lamnidae made their appearance shortly afterwards. Ryder was ready with his shield to receive the assault, and Gizmo swiftly counter-attacked the one closest to her with a Kinetic Strike to the face, but several of the militia soldiers spread further out from the center of the spearhead weren't so lucky.

"HELP! PLEASE."

"OH GOD."

"GHHKKKKGGGLLL…"

" _Engage! Engage!_ "

" _Strike One, switch to Gauss!_ "

The huntsmen rushed to the aid of their vulnerable allies. Yatsuhashi and Fox devastated one shark that was busy crushing the pelvis of an unfortunate militia fighter. Annette's Pegasus Protocol for the jump troopers paid off in full, as not a single operative had been caught unawares by the sneak attack. Rifles rattled as the operatives unloaded on the sharks before they could burrow and leap again. Ryder watched as Arslan, Reese, and Annette worked in tandem to catch one of the monsters by the tail, slice away at its armored carapace, and deliver a point-blank psionic-infused strike to the fleshy interior once a weak point became exposed.

" _Ground team, you've got Wyverns headed your way. I'm trying to keep them on me, but I think they're starting to catch on._ "

"Terry?"

" _On it!_ "

Terry swept the Phoenix Cannon around and locked onto the incoming Wyverns. Bone splinters punctured the sand like lawn darts while the Odin's scatter cannon spit out its deadly retort. More than a couple of soldiers and operatives cried out in pain as the Wyverns found their marks.

" _Keep pushing!_ " Ryder called, his shield covering a sizeable chunk of the offensive force. A roar in the distance drew Ryder's attention, and he saw the Gigas cock its head back and hurl a ball of black ichor through the air.

" _Strike Teams, brace for bombardment!_ "

Terry immediately started to track the ball and fired on it with the shoulder cannon as it arced towards their position. The cannon rounds impacted the projectile and caused it to split up into several smaller fragments that collided with the sand a few seconds later. Under the floodlights of the Odin, Ryder watched the oily mass bubble and churn. The slime started to coalesce into a solid form, then two, before Ryder figured out what was going on.

" _It's spawning more Grimm!_ " he called. " _Take them out!_ "

" _Great, because this wasn't already hard enough…_ "

The Gigas hurled several more balls of Grimm mass at the advancing cadre before slamming its head into the sand and opening its gargantuan maw to deliver a bone-shaking wail.

" _Ryder, it appears that the Gigas has multiple methods of spawning more Grimm!_ "

"Yeah," Ryder sighed, "It would seem so."

Creatures of darkness poured out of the wurm's mouth the way sand pours out of a tipped jar. The Menagerie offensive was doing its best to fend off the desert-borne hordes racing towards them, and was already at risk of stalling as it fought to keep up with _those_ Grimm. The legions spilling forth from the Gigas itself?

" _There's no way we can fight through that!_ "

" _We… we have to go back. We can use the city's defenses to help fight off the horde… outlast it._ "

" _This nightmare is unreal…_ "

That breaking point, Ryder realized, was coming sooner than he'd hoped. "Central, we could _really_ use those reinforcements right about now."

As if on cue, warheads pounded the sand, sending Canis, Stalkers, and other Grimm flying. The familiar _brrrt_ of Coco's minigun cut a large swath of death in the ever-steady influx of monsters throwing themselves at the Menagerie phalanx. Several figures dropped into the sand, including an explosively energetic Nora Valkyrie.

"Ask, and you shall receive!" She cried out gleefully, the kinetic strike boosters on her hammer glowing white-hot. The silvery glow of Jaune's aura dropped from the sky behind her, and Ryder's battle computer caught Ren's shadowy figure slip towards the backline of the spearhead to provide medical assistance for the wounded.

Firebrand hovered low behind the Odin, and Coco continued to spray death while the other operatives dropped down to support the push.

" _Cavalry's here, boys and girls!_ " Beagle announced over the comms, " _Let's bag ourselves a creepy-ass wurm and call it a day, shall we?_ "

Ryder recognized another figure dropping from the Bullhead. "Hey… is that Qrow?"

" _It would appear so, Ryder!_ "

Ruby had also noticed her uncle's arrival, and it spurred her on to redouble her efforts against the oncoming Grimm. In general, the arrival of reinforcements was enough of a tactical and motivational push to get the offensive moving once more. The Strike teams stuck close to Ryder and Gizmo in case the Wyverns decided to make another pass, and the rain of bullets continued to keep the Grimm at bay while the spearhead advanced.

Ryder kept his armaments trained on the hardened targets while Terry sprayed the weaker ones with her cannon.

" _We've got them on the run!_ _KEEP PUSHING!_ "

The Gigas disagreed with Ryder. It plunged back beneath the sand, and a brand new dune started to form before the offensive's eyes as the monster tunneled its way towards them.

"Oh, fucking hell…"

Ryder didn't even need to give the order to scatter: having a giant Death Wurm racing towards the soldiers was motivation enough for them to haul ass. Several operatives had the wherewithal to hitch a ride on the Odin while it jetted out of harm's way. He could only hope that the rest of the coalition was able to evade the monstrous creature.

* * *

 _DANGER._

Annette mentally responded with an annoyed, ' _Yes I know!_ ' as she took to the skies with her squad. She scanned the ground to see if anyone was left behind, prioritizing her own squad before making sure everyone else had an escape plan. The Menagerie guards were, predictably, the least-equipped to escape, but huntsmen and operatives alike worked to help them scatter with everyone else.

The sand dune exploded as the Gigas erupted from below, sending several unfortunate faunus that were too close to the epicenter tumbling through the air. Up close and in the floodlights, the armored head of the monster proved a lot nastier than Annette realized. Three large jaw… flap… things formed a mouth that came to a point at the end of the wurm's body which easily sat two stories tall. As it roared to announce its arrival, Annette could see rows upon rows upon rows of teeth lining the inside of the Gigas's maw. The overlapping armor on its flanks flared slightly, and more black ooze flowed out and puddled on the sand below.

"Central," Annette keyed, "If you're planning on making use of the Avenger in this battle, now would be an excellent time."

" _We're making our descent now, Major. Hold fast, and know that help is on the way._ "

The pitched battle continued as the coalition regrouped in the wake of the Gigas's destructive entrance. By this point, all operatives had switched to Gauss munitions, partly to clear out the minions quickly enough to avoid getting overwhelmed and partly to try and tear some holes in the armored hide of the wurm.

" _Watch it! Fucker's whipping its head around!_ "

" _It's spawning more of those little Deathstalkers!_ "

" _Sand Sharks on our flank!_ "

Annette watched Ryder focus the Odin's heavy ordnance on the Gigas while the shoulder-mounted gun belched shot after shot at the smaller targets. If anything was going to get through the chitin plating on that beast, it would be the Odin. Unless…

"Rocketeers." Annette called out, "Take to the skies and aim for it's maw when it opens to spit more Grimm at us."

" _Aye, Major._ "

" _Terry's working on a solution to the armor with the Doc, by the way._ " Speaking of the devil… " _They're thinking that if the armor can be super-chilled, then it might be brittle enough to break._ "

"You got some Ice Dust onboard that tin can of yours?" Annette hollered.

" _Oh, you know it._ "

Annette wouldn't be of much use against the Gigas, so she joined Ruby, Qrow, and the other brawlers who were wading into the neverending tide of minions.

"Bet I can kill more than you, Major." Ruby quipped.

Annette snorted. "Bet you're full of shit."

A Sand Shark shrieked a few paces away, and the two of them looked over to see Qrow and Blake butchering the monster that they'd somehow managed to flip onto its back. "Only one way for you two to find out." Qrow said, eyebrow raised, "But you're free to start anytime now."

"Blake! Back me up!"

"Ohhh son-of-a… Arslan! Get your ass over here!"

Arslan looked up from her own fight several yards away, rolled her eyes, and dashed over to help. "How many times do I have to bail you out?" Arslan huffed.

"As many times as it takes to win," Annette quipped back. "It is called friendship!"

By now, the two of them had grown rather adept at fighting with each other. While Annette had taught Arslan the importance of determination and willpower, Arslan had worked with Annette to practice the intricacies of flow in combat. The two spent countless hours on the Avenger's flight deck, often with Reese, learning how to best combine their abilities to maintain a constant pressure on the adversary while never giving them an opening to strike back.

Annette led in with a shotgun blast to the nearest target, and while Arslan followed up with an energized palm strike to knock it off-balance, Annette finished with a form-shifted sword straight to the throat. A Canis moved in from behind to attack while Annette was exposed but was yanked away by a well-timed rope dart.

 _ATTACK._

Sometimes, the voice in Annette's head had a penchant for telling her the obvious. A small price to pay, however, for all the other times it's saved her ass. She switched her weapon back into a shotgun just as Arslan swung their victim around so she could blast it away at point-blank range. Arslan used the extra momentum to whip the Grimm around and smash it into one of its brethren.

 _DANGER._

Annette's senses perked up. She was busy tag-teaming a Cockatrice with Arslan, who was busy reeling herself towards the Grimm after Annette had sent it flying with her shotgun. Several Canis pounced at the opportunity to attack the isolated huntress, and Arslan was fending them off almost effortlessly. So what was the issue?

 _DANGER._

Whatever was tripping Annette's dangersense got Arslan's attention, too, as she froze for half a second after she delivered a crippling palm strike to the head of one of the hounds. And despite the alert, the Sand Shark still managed to catch her unaware and snatch her body in its jaws.

 _Oh fuck._

 _MOVE._

Annette dashed across the sand as Arslan screamed, a scream that unfortunately merely added to the cacophony of the hectic battlefield.

"Arslan!"

 _MOVE. MOVE._

Annette could see the rest of ABRN racing to their leader's aid. Reese was in the lead as she hurled herself over the dunes on her board, but each second they took closing the gap was another chomp of the Lamnidae's jaws on Arslan's pinned body. The young woman wailed with each bite, and she flailed her one free arm in a vain effort to break free.

The backseat driver in Annette's head seemed to be trying to grab hold of the wheel. Each time it yelled _MOVE_ , the command felt like more than a mere word. Something tugged deep within her. It was as if Annette's body was trying to obey the voice's command in a way that wasn't humanly possible.

Another bite, and Annette watched Arslan's Aura finally shatter.

 _MOVE. MOVE._ _ **MOVE.**_

Something inside Annette snapped. Where the Major was still twenty paces away from Arslan a moment ago, her shoulder now smashed into the side of the Sand Shark's face with far more force than expected. The Grimm dropped Arslan in surprise.

 _STRIKE._

Something primal pushed confusion and shock to the backburner of Annette's mind. Her sword sliced through the underbelly of the Sand Shark.

 _PROTECT._

Bolin, Reese, and Nadir showed up and joined Annette as the four formed a defensive ring around Arslan. The girl's near-death experience drew in Grimm like blood in the water. More of the snarling, evil-eyed monstrosities closed in from all angles as ABRN dug in for the fight of their lives.

 _Ruby, I've got problems._

 _I know. What was that teleportation stunt you pulled?_

 _The what?_

 _We'll talk about it later. I'm trying to get to you, but the Gigas is spawning more Grimm the harder we hit it. Our Rocketeers really pissed it off._

"We've got to get her out of here," Bolin choked out, his staff a constant whirlwind as he pushed back monster after monster that swarmed in to take a bite out of the mauled Arslan.

"Easier said than done," Nadir grunted. With each Canis and Deathstalker they destroyed, two more eagerly piled in. "The damn wurm isn't running out of reinforcements." He jumped as a bone spine smashed into the sand inches away from his foot. "Shit! The Wyverns are back, too!"

Arslan whimpered quietly at their feet. The sound raised the hairs on the back of Annette's neck.

" _Hang in there, Arslan._ " She said, injecting a dose of Inspiration into her words, "You've seen the face of Death, now tell him to fuck off."

 _SURVIVE._

Sword strikes, psionic lances, and shotgun blasts slew Grimm after Grimm, and yet they kept on coming. And as the monsters poured in, they continued to chip away at ABRN's vitality. A bite to the leg here, a Wyvern spine to the shoulder there… little by little, Arslan's defenders were getting worn down.

And they weren't the only ones.

" _Gun's starting to run dry. Tell me we've got reinforcements on the way._ "

" _There's too many of them!_ "

" _Keep it together, soldiers! Failure is not an option!_ "

" _It's… it's too much!_ "

" _We need to fall back and regroup!_ "

Hearing the Menagerie soldiers start to waver only served to piss Annette off. She could understand their sentiment. Really, she could. But to turn their backs on XCOM, who put their lives on the line to protect Kuo Kuana, a city that _none_ of them called home? That infuriated Annette.

" _Hold fast! We can get through this! But we need your help to pull it off!_ "

" _No… no. We need to retreat._ "

 _Ruby._ Annette called to her friend. She cried out as a Hellion chomped down on her armored leg two seconds before she had the chance to lop its head off. _We're in trouble over here._

 _I know, I know! But we're barely keeping the main force together. I've never seen my uncle fight this hard._

 _Ruby, Arslan is going to die if I can't get her out of here._

 _I…. I'm trying, Annette. I am! ... There's just so many!_

"Central," Annette barked, "We're starting to fall apart down here. It's now or fucking _never_!"

" _Jaegers are coming into range now, Major. They're locked onto the wurm, and firing… now._ "

Four explosions rocked the armored carapace of the beast, followed by four sonic booms as physics caught up with XCOM's heavy artillery.

" _Reporting direct hits._ " One of the MEC snipers, Vulcan confirmed, " _MAC systems require thirty seconds to cycle down before we can fire again._ "

The wurm screamed, and even the Grimm assaulting the offensive coalition shuddered as the very air vibrated from their progenitor's roar. ABRN recovered before the monsters did, and took the opportunity to clear some room so that Reese could pull Arslan back towards the main group.

 _Ruby, we're trying to get to you. But we've still got a lot of these assholes in the way._

" _Ground Team, this is Firebrand. I've got Strike Six loaded up in the backseat, and they are itching for a fight._ "

" _Good to hear, Firebrand. Eightball, how are we doing with those Wyverns?_ "

" _They're a fuckin' pain in my ass, but at least I'm keeping them from being a pain in yours. My bird's gonna need some serious repairs after this is all over._ "

" _Eightball, this is Central. Gidjit is reporting that he has sufficient control over some of his point defense armaments on the Avenger for use in combat. Draw the Wyverns over to us, and we'll see what we can do to help you out._

Annette psi-blasted a Cockatrice at point-blank range as it tried to crash into Reese and Arslan. A Canis leapt into the air from behind the bird, but its head vaporized into red mist mid-flight. Thirty paces away, Annette could see the smoking barrel of Crescent Rose, its blade planted firmly into the sand while Ruby pulled the bolt handle to chamber another round.

 _That's my girl._

"C'mon, guys. We're almost there!"

Even as she said it, though, Annette could feel her muscles burning for a respite. Each swing became heavier. The sand seemed like it was trying to pull her down with every step. Grimm fell with every boom from Crescent Rose, and yet Annette still struggled to fend off those that remained.

 _C'mon, Annette, you've got this!_

 _ENDURE._

Annette's body tried to answer the call of her co-pilot. But it couldn't.

 _Annette, don't you dare!_

The Major stumbled with her next step, though she still managed to drive her sword deep into the chest of another Canis.

" _Preparing to fire MAC salvo._ "

" _Vulcan!_ " Annette heard Ruby shout on the comms. " _Direct one round to fire on the Grimm at my location!_ "

" _Acknowledged, Captain. Developing firing solution… Ready to fire._ "

" _Punch it!_ "

Although her vision started to grow blurry, the impact of the MAC round crashing into the Grimm several yards away shocked Annette into a more alert state. Alert, but still fatigued

 _MOVE._

 _Yeah, yeah… maybe_ you _can try moving these legs for a few goddamn seconds._

The other three MAC rounds exploded along the armored flank of the wurm, and the monster screeched again.

" _Forward, Warriors of Menagerie!_ " A new voice cried on the comms. Annette didn't recognize its owner, but she called out with an air of authority that gave the Major a few guesses.

" _L-Lady…?_ "

" _XCOM stands with us in our hour of need. Do not dishonor yourselves by abandoning them now._ "

One step. Two steps. Annette could see Ruby urging her forward with one hand while firing Crescent Rose with the other. As fatigue tightened its grasp on Annette's mind, she felt a psychic surge of energy that she recognized as a drastic shift in the emotions of the battlefield. Whoever that woman was, she'd given the Menagerie fighters a second wind that Annette could have used right about now.

Four steps. Five steps.

The Grimm behind ABRN were swiftly turned to mulch as more operatives rallied to assist the beleaguered team. Reese swooped forward (as best as she could, at least) to bring Arslan to safety while Nadir and Bolin continued to keep the hordes at bay. Annette moved past the XCOM firing line and almost immediately crashed to her knees.

 _REST._

Now _that_ was an order that Annette could easily carry out.

* * *

" _You ready for this, kiddo?_ "

Yang grinned from beneath her helmet, even though she knew her dad couldn't see it. "I could ask you the same thing, old man. Did you remember to pack an extra pair of pants? These airdrops can get pretty intense."

Taiyang scoffed. " _If you think a little altitude is enough to scare me, you should have seen some of the shit my team pulled when we were your age. Just make sure you don't forget what we went over._ "

"Dad, we practiced this back when I was still at Signal. It's not like I don't know what you can do."

" _Right. You just happen to have massive robotic limbs now. You know... Just a minor detail._ "

"You should ask Nora how many times she's ridden the Fastball Express, courtesy of yours truly. I'm not going to screw this up."

" _Alright, alright, no need to get offended. I just wanted to make sure-_ "

"Oh, would you look at that," Yang interrupted, "Firebrand just took off with Strike Six. That's our cue to drop. I suggest holding on."

Yang walked her MEC off the edge of the Avenger and plunged into the waiting desert sky. Her HUD was alight with a dizzying amount of information: operative locations, Jaeger firing lanes, and an impressively large number of Grimm marked as High Priority Targets. Oh, and the giant Christmas Tree that was apparently known as the Gigas.

" _Heads up, BFG,_ " Eightball called over the comms, " _I'm dragging a couple of birdies across your flight path. Think you could give me a hand on your way down?_ "

"Gladly," Yang said with delight. She spotted the highlighted outline of the Wyverns, identified the one that was on a collision course with her MEC, and grabbed it by the neck as she blew past. She pinned the surprised Grimm with her mechanized legs before asking, "Dad, do you mind…?"

Tai was already crawling over Yang's shoulder and wasted no time in laying into the flier. The Wyvern screamed when he tore away the bone plate, and it tried in vain to bring its barbed tail around to stab its assailant. The attack only succeeded in giving Taiyang a new weapon, as he ripped one of the spines out and used it to gouge the monster's eye before dragging it across the Wyvern's throat.

"Get back, Dad." The Wyvern was too weak from Taiyang's attack to resist as Yang grabbed its neck with both hands and ripped the head off.

" _Well, I'd say that Daddy-Daughter Time is off to a good start._ " Taiyang chuckled.

"Oh yeah," Yang agreed with glee. The flier evaporated into the wind, and the ground was looking a lot closer now. "But the best part is coming up. You ready?"

" _You know it._ "

The trick they had planned was something Tai had taught Yang back when she was learning about the importance of partner synergy at Signal. Taiyang's semblance allowed him to reverse kinetic energy upon contact, whether it was his own or the object he was touching. It allowed him to either launch himself by reversing his own energy, or to increase the force behind his punch by using his target's energy against itself.

And now they were free-falling at terminal velocity, and Yang was strapped into a MEC equipped with high-torque shoulder servos.

With her dad crouched in the palm of the MEC's right hand, Yang cocked her limb back and warned the ground team, "All operatives: this is Master Sergeant Xiao Long, preparing to engage the Oppenheimer Protocol. Please stand clear of the Gigas while the tactical nuke is deployed."

" _OH SHIT._ "

" _... Oppenwho?_ "

" _EVERYONE, CLEAR OUT._ "

" _What's going on-?_ "

" _MOVE! JUST MOVE!_ "

With one swift motion, Yang chucked her payload like a baseball. At the apex of her throw, Tai pushed off with a _bang_ and hurtled towards the wurm.

" _MAC salvo ready to fire._ "

" _Hold fire, Vulcan._ " Bradford ordered, " _Sounds to me like you're about to have a very large soft target._ "

Bradford wasn't wrong. Taiyang collided with the sand wurm, and the explosive shockwave that followed rattled Yang's reinforced frame. She saw the hardened armor of the Gigas ripple and crack as it tried unsuccessfully to disperse the energy from Taiyang's punch. The fractures widened and grew into a massive spider web before the carapace finally caved and exploded outwards into thousands upon thousands of little pieces. The only thing louder than the anguished scream of the Gigas was the roaring cheers of the groundside soldiers - from several stories below the point of impact.

" _Skysnipers, open fire._ "

A quartet of railgun slugs rained down upon the Gigas, followed shortly by Yang's mechanized fist. The Gigas bucked in pain and rage in response to the coordinated assault, and Yang plunged her hand through exposed guts and goop before catching a piece of the chitinous shell to keep herself steady.

" _Jeeeeeeeeeeeesus Christ._ "

" _You can say that again._ "

" _Jeeeee-_ "

" _No, stop._ "

" _Seriously, BFG… how the_ fuck _did you do that?_ "

Yang raised up her fist to deliver another kinetic strike to the monster's armor. "Kinetic reversal."

" _Right. Because that explains fuck all._ "

Menagerie's newest arrival wasn't about to waste the opportunity to strike. " _Forward, warriors! The beast falters, and it is time that we show the Grimm who truly owns Menagerie!_ "

" _We'll watch your six._ " Ryder confirmed, " _All Strike teams, focus fire on the small targets while Lady Khan assaults the Gigas._ "

" _Huntsmen, focus on the HPT's,_ " Beagle added, " _We'll handle the mutts and pigeons. It's about time I get revenge for The Great Emu War._ "

" _The what?_ "

Yang tuned out the chatter and returned her attention to the matter at hand. Her dad had recovered from his airstrike and hopped back onto the MEC's grab bar.

" _So what's the plan, kiddo?_ "

"Start ripping up these plates." Yang answered. "Our alpha strike's definitely done a number on this thing's armor, but we've got to tear it all away if we want any chance to really kill it."

Taiyang grinned. "My little girl's all grown up. Since when did you become a tactician?"

Yang clamped on to a jagged plate as much to regain her balance as it was to tear it off. "Since I got the new arms, dad," she half-joked. "Or since Ruby made me realize I need to start stepping up my game. Yeah, probably that one. Anyway, Brad asked me to be conservative with my fuel, if possible, so I probably shouldn't use my jet boots to get some airtime for another dunk."

" _Fair enough. I can only pull that party trick a few times before it depletes my Aura, anyway._ "

The skies rattled and thundered overhead. Yang looked up to see the Avenger looming in closer to the fight. Flashes along the side of the ship caught her attention, and she figured that was the point defense guns perforating the Wyverns. A quartet of flashes dotted the top of the flight deck, and four more railgun rounds impacted the Gigas.

Right, time to get to work.

The cracked plating tore off easily enough. Some of the bone chitin had already fallen off from Tai's initial impact, so all Yang had to do was grab an exposed edge and start pulling. The fleshy skin beneath made a sickening squelching noise as the bone plate ripped away, which only spurred Yang forward to continue her work with renewed vigor. By the time the Menagerie militiamen had arrived, Yang had provided a pretty sizeable gap in the armor.

"Blah. I don't think I'll be eating sushi anytime soon," Yang muttered.

Rifles and shotguns echoed in the night. Makeshift firebombs splashed into the freshly-opened wounds. Sienna did not join the militia squad attacking the wurm's flank, and Yang guessed that the faunus leader had instead chosen to remain up by the mouth to either keep the beast distracted or to stem the tide of fresh Grimm.

" _Keep going! We're cutting through its mass!_ "

" _Watch out for those Canis!_ "

The Gigas didn't make it easy, that was for sure. It bucked and swayed in an effort to dismount its riders and crush the raiders, all while spitting out more protean Grimm matter to distract the attackers. The desert shuddered as it reared up and slammed into the sand, but Yang and her father hung on.

The Menagerie fighters dug in.

" _Keep shooting, Warriors! For your loved ones! For Kuo Kuana!_ "

As a final effort, the Gigas tried to retreat back underground to escape the assault. It almost succeeded, too.

" _Fucker's getting away!_ "

" _Terry, ice it!_ "

" _Yes, sir!_ "

A salvo of blue-tinted explosives streaked towards the retreating head of the Gigas, exploding in a frosty, sub-zero cloud. The monster thundered out in pain, and stopped slinking back into the sand. It wailed in its dazed state. Yang watched Gizmo race forward and deliver a rocket punch to the frozen jaw with a satisfying _crunch_.

"Dad?"

" _You read my mind,_ " Taiyang answered while he jumped up into Yang's hand.

" _Gizmo!_ " Yang called out. " _I'm about to throw my dad at you. Do me a favor and punch him back towards the Gigas, alright?_ "

Yang didn't wait for an answer as she chucked her dad down towards the other MEC by the monster's head.

It was only when Gizmo's one-word reply of, " _missed!_ " echoed in her ear that Yang froze. "Uh oh," she said.

Her father's voice, however, followed shortly after. " _HooooOOOOOOLY shit!_ "

Among the wurm's flailing as it started to recover from the icy assault, Yang caught a glimpse of her father spinning around on a long chain. He disappeared again, and a loud _crunch_ was followed by pieces of shattered wurm flesh exploding into tiny, evaporating shards.

" _Well, that was badass. Can, uh… can we keep the Khan?_ "

Yang grinned, remembering how she'd thought the same thing the first time she'd tried the same move with Blake. She dashed forward along the body of the Gigas to see what had happened, skidding to a stop once she reached the head.

Or rather… what was left of it, anyway. One of the three mouth flaps that formed the end of the wurm's body was completely mangled. The massive slab of meat was still there, but it was torn to pieces, hanging by sinews, and utterly unuseable. Apparently Ryder's plan to freeze and then break it was far more effective than Yang had originally realized. Wailing on the exposed, massive inside of the mouth stood Taiyang, Gizmo, and Sienna Khan.

As one might expect from a feline huntress, Sienna Khan was practically a dancer with the way she moved in a fight. The way she wielded her chain… whip… thingy reminded Yang of how Blake would sometimes lash out at range with Gambol Shroud, but this was an entirely new level. Given that Sienna had years of experience over Blake, and that striking with the whip was the focus of her combat style, it was hardly surprising. But the way she ripped a tooth out of the monster's mouth, swung the tooth around and impaled it like a dagger into the throat of a Canis, then whipped her chain around to strike a Cockatrice, spun about to…

Whoa. It was dizzying to watch. Taiyang and Gizmo provided the heavy firepower, but Sienna just… _locked down_ the battlefield.

" _We've breached the head!_ " One of the Strike operatives cried out, " _Let's mulch this fucker from the inside out!_ "

" _Lady Khan! The exposed wounds on the Gigas's flank are causing it to bleed Grimm!_ "

Yang looked back over the wurm's body and saw several little buggers running and skittering along towards her from the gaping flesh wound she'd left behind.

"Because of course it wouldn't be easy…" she sighed quietly to herself.

" _Then we shall fight it on two fronts,_ " Sienna answered. " _Brave warriors, join me and XCOM as we venture into the belly of the beast!_ "

" _This is Central. Strikes Four, Five, and Six, stand your ground at the maw to make sure no Grimm attack the assault team from the rear. We'll continue to pound it from above. Be advised that the more holes we poke in this thing, the more Grimm we're probably dealing with._ "

" _Then how do we kill it?_ "

" _Through the heart,_ " Sienna answered coldly.

" _We can help with that, Lady Khan,_ " Bradford interjected. " _My team is prepping a bomb that makes generous use of Fire Dust and several other highly volatile materials. If we can get that thing delivered to its vitals…_ "

" _Then we've got ourselves a dead wurm._ " Ryder finished. The Odin's railguns racked loudly and Ryder fired a pair of shots into the maw of the Gigas. Several shrill screams echoed back by way of response.

" _All operatives prepping for the breach?_ " he said, Yang and Gizmo falling into formation behind him. " _Fix bayonets._ "

Amidst the gunfire of the rear guard, the White Fang, and the militia, a satisfying _sshhhhnk_ echoed as three squads of XCOM operatives flipped the fusion knife attachments on their rifles and shotguns into position.

Not one of them with Aura. Yang would be at the front, making sure they didn't need it..

" _Reapers. Move in and scout ahead,_ " Elena commanded. " _These creatures will soon learn that the very shadows yearn for their demise._ "

Like a whisper in the night, a chilling breeze rushed into the the bleeding chasm of the wurm's head. The beast whimpered as Ryder stomped on its lower mandible to hold it open while Gizmo drove her sword straight through the fleshy lip. That didn't change the fact that three MECs were walking straight into the beastie's mouth, practically side by side.

And yet, despite the fact that three MECs could comfortably fit inside the monstrous throat of the Gigas, Yang still got a slight sense of claustrophobia as soon as she crossed the threshold. The tepid air pressed in around them almost as much as the darkness did, The pulsating walls made her feel like the monster's cavernous insides were slowly closing in on the assault team. And the large, bony spine running along the ceiling with wide, arching ribs branching off of it added yet another grisly detail to their push into the wurm. Yang was excited at the prospect of beating the shit out of the Gigas from the inside out, and yet… she knew it wasn't going to be pleasant.

Firebrand declared over the comms, " _package is prepped and headed your way now, ground team. Recommend leaving a secondary crew at the mouth that can catch up once I drop off the payload._ "

" _CQC line, advance. The heavy weapons are right behind you._ "

Sienna led the charge with the huntsmen (minus JNPR, who stayed behind to support the rear guard), the militia, and the Assaults and Scouts from the first three Strike teams. The Gunners and Infantrymen warmed up their rifles and fired over the shoulders of their peers and into the void. The familiar whine of Coco's minigun echoed off of the spongy walls as she joined the chorus.

As they moved past the wicked teeth of the monster's maw, Yang noticed several fleshy sacs lining the walls of the Gigas's throat. Black matter dripped from them, slowly pooling on the floor and forming small rivulets of Grimm essence.

"Those are probably how it kept lobbing Grimm Goo at us," she guessed, revving up the engines on her Kinetic Strike Module. "I'm gonna punch it."

Lady Khan was already one step ahead, lashing out with her whip-chain and sweeping it in wide arcs to inflict lacerations on several of the sacs. The CQC line advanced to deal with the monsters pour forth from further in. The sacs, Yang quickly found out, burst like disgusting, oversized water balloons when smashed with a kinetic strike module.

"Show the monster no mercy!" Sienna shouted. "We will slice, stab, and _burn_ everything we come across. The Gigas will be an empty husk once we're done with it.

Yang couldn't disagree with that. And as they pushed further in, she realized that there were plenty of important-looking bits hanging off the walls and growing up from the floor of the monster. Several of the Menagerie militiamen hefted their flamethrowers, originally intended to burn away the Scarab swarms, and instead got to work torching the inside of the Gigas.

" _Whoaaaakay, Big Boy is flaring out his armor plates like they're gills, and some beefy dudes are spilling out._ "

" _We can handle it!_ " Jaune interjected. " _Assault team, just worry about pushing deep enough to kill it!_ "

The Gigas's body rocked as four more railgun shells slammed into its flank, and the groaning roar smelled disgusting as it washed over Yang's MEC.

"... Let's keep going."

" _Bomb is groundside,_ " Apollo called out. " _Escorting it now with team CFVY_."

An unending tide of Grimm rose up from the ichor pooling at the base of the Gigas and poured into the limited lighting provided by the MECs' flood lamps and the rifle flashlights of the operatives. A gout of flame from Yang's arm lit up the cavernous inside every now and then, but the fire wasn't enough to deter the Grimm from throwing themselves at the assault team like demons in the dark. And if that wasn't bad enough, the wurm's body was an entirely separate carnival of horrors.

" _Oh_ _ **fuck**_ _!_ "

One of the Assaults had pushed ahead and found a tooth jammed into his foot. The walls of the corridor constricted as more teeth extended from flesh, slowly pulling the operative into a deadly squeeze.

" _Shit!_ "

" _Get him out of there!_ "

Several operatives hurried to help, but the floor of teeth continued to grow. From behind them, Sienna's chain shot out, wrapped around the trapped Assault's waist, and yanked him back with the tooth firmly embedded in his foot.

" _Strap him into a jumpseat._ " Ryder ordered, " _We don't have time to slow down._ "

Indeed, more disgusting parts of the Gigas's anatomy lay ahead. Giant pools of caustic waste, tendrils with hooked ends, constricting segments that used crushing force rather than razor teeth to pulverize its victims, seeping sores that grew wide to trap an unsuspecting operative or faunus before closing up again to cripple them. And at every step of their journey, the very walls dripped with Grimm essence to spawn more monstrosities with the sole intent of killing them.

But for every horror the wurm threw their way, XCOM countered it without slowing down. Grenades were flung into the caustic pools, either splattering their contents against the unprotected walls with explosive force or freezing it solid with ice dust. Hooked tendrils were swiftly cut down by twin Crescent Roses, one wielded by Ruby and another by Velvet. The crushing walls were punched back by Kinetic Strike modules and Aura-infused palm strikes by Fox and Taiyang. And every time a hole tried to swallow up an operative, salvation came in the form of a Viper's tongue or Sienna's chain. All the while Reapers gutted Grimm in the dark, gauss and Dust rounds tore through the thick fleshy walls, and the entire creature shuddered and shook as explosions rocked it from the outside. It didn't matter what was inside the beast - failure was not an option.

And yet, the constant danger, the darkness, and the shrill cries from the Grimm took their toll on the Assault team. Yang would catch glimpses of her sister and watch the signs of fatigue grow across her face. Given Ruby's rudimentary ESP, Yang had to wonder if the strain was all physical or if the emotions of their companions were taking an equally heavy toll on Ruby.

A small part of Yang wondered if she was contributing to that. Since getting her MEC, she'd never had to worry about firepower. Now, for once, she started to wonder if even her Juggernaut-encased MEC had a big enough arsenal to make it to the end of this monster.

With a yell, she slammed her MEC's fists together, her Semblance flared just enough to light the beast's insides for a second. Then she slammed one KSM down, pulping an armoured, tentacled black creature and bruising the wurm's guts to boot.

Her little sis wasn't getting any fear off of her today.

The ground jolted beneath them, as though they were in a train car lurching forward from a stand-still.

" _Gigas is moving!_ " Beagle warned.

Shit. The soldiers looked at one another while Sienna answered the comms.

" _Back underground?_ "

" _Negative, it's… it's headed towards Kuo Kuana._ "

" _Slow it down by any means necessary. The Assault team is still advancing on its target._ "

" _You heard her! Let's bring this fucker to its knees!_ "

" _It doesn't have knees, boss._ "

Either way, the news lit a fire under the Assault team as they pushed onward with renewed purpose. The entire corridor began to undulate as the Gigas slithered forward, which added another layer of complications to the team's advance. The walls pulsed and throbbed, and Yang suspected they held arteries that supplied Grimm essence to the rest of the wurm. Among the almost-constant sound of gunfire and steel, a dull _ba-dump, ba-dump_ started to reverberate down the corridor.

" _Elena? Any idea if essence from a giant wurm Grimm would be more potent than essence from the little guys?_ "

" _It is,_ " the Reaper answered simply.

Sienna, however, focused on maintaining the team's momentum. " _Keep pushing! I'm certain we're almost there!_ "

Yang was inclined to agree with her, if only because the Grimm were becoming more monstrous, more armored, and more ravenous as they pushed further inward. New threats appeared, such as small, armored bears dropping down from the roof of the Gigas's cavernous interior, wreaked havoc among the soldiers.

Worse yet, chatter among the operatives betrayed that ammo was starting to run dry. The huntsmen, however, redoubled their efforts to make up for the reduced fire support. Qrow and Taiyang laughed more than once as they continually tried to one-up each other, Yatsuhashi unleashed small earthquakes with every strike, and Sienna's endless whirlwind of daggers and chains was quite possibly the only thing keeping hope alive among the White Fang.

" _This is insane…_ "

" _We're not getting out of here, are we?_ "

" _Yes we are!_ "

" _How?_ "

The cavernous wurm shuddered from another Jaeger salvo, and Yang could hear the _ratta-tat-tat_ chatter of Eightball's nosegun in the fight raging beyond the walls of the Gigas. A pack of armored Canis raced into view. Yang readied her fists for a beatdown. She dashed forward alongside Gizmo, Taiyang, and Sienna. The hellions crashed into her juggernaut plating and swarmed the huntsmen intent on sending them back into the abyss. MEC fists met bony skulls, and Sienna's dagger shimmered in the squad's light. With a yell, the XCOM operatives readied their weapons and charged the Grimm with the fusion knives glowing red-hot.

Cries of pain were drowned out by yells of fury. The faunus of Menagerie pushed forward with their XCOM comrades. The dingoes fell in short order, but the unspoken point was made perfectly clear. Keep fighting and keep pushing. There's no way back until the job's done.

The flamethrowers had run dry a while ago, but that didn't stop the team from ripping up every fleshy organ they saw. Yang knew she would be spending some quality time in the Avenger scrubbing Talos's MEC suit clean to get rid of all the grime and gooey viscera getting caked onto the plates and in the crevices.

Through another narrowing in the body, over mountains of acid-bleached bones, and across a room criss-crossed with dripping strands of Grimm essence the group pushed. Yang could practically feel the intangible energy driving the group forward. She grinned as she caught Ruby's eye and saw her sister give her a sly wink. As they drove deeper into the Gigas, the low beat grew louder and louder.

" _Team,_ " Elena advised, " _I think our target is up ahead._ "

Sure enough, the group broke through one last choke point and found what _had_ to be the nerve center of the Gigas. A giant, pulsating mass sat at the end of an uncharacteristically cavernous segment of the wurm, encased in Grimm webbing and surrounded by monsters. The vanishing carcasses of several Grimm proved that the Reapers were already getting a head start on clearing a path for the bomb, and the arrival of stomping MECs and screaming soldiers drew the rest like moths to a flame.

" _Keep them busy while Yatsu delivers the bomb!_ " Ruby commanded. " _I'll snipe it once we're clear!_ "

One more room. One final push, and they could finally catch a breath. That was the hope, anyway. Yang gave it her all, as did Ruby, Blake, Taiyang, Qrow… everyone. They knew they needed to succeed here and now in this moment, and they'd figure out what to do next once they got to that point.

The Grimm did not make it easy. It almost seemed as though their proximity to the nexus of the Gigas gave them unholy strength. They fought like wild animals backed into a corner. Coco rained death from atop the Odin while Fox and Velvet escorted Yatsuhashi towards the heart. Faunus and XCOM operatives cycled in a near-constant state of pulling back the wounded while pushing forward with those who could still fight. Tendrils lashed out from the walls and the heart itself to push back the assault, and more Grimm rose up from the spawning pools that collected at the base of the giant organ.

" _Gun's dry!_ "

" _Fall back and let the huntsmen fight!_ "

" _Hell no! Not while I can still stab these assholes!_ "

The Odin's railguns boomed as Ryder targeted the largest of the monsters. He must have been conserving his last set of rounds for this, and Yang had to admit that the heavy firepower was sorely needed. Even with experienced brawlers like her dad and uncle keeping the Grimm at bay, the size of some of the creatures called for a more supersonic solution.

" _Bomb's in place!_ "

" _Everybody fall back!_ "

Yang and Gizmo stood their ground with overlapping hard light shields to cover the retreat of their squishier allies. Each second stretched on for an eternity as the Grimm fell upon them like a wave.

" _All clear!_ "

The jetboots on the MECs screamed to life, and the duo beat a hasty retreat back to the safety of the far entryway. Once they were within punching distance of the choke point, a lone bullet sailed over Yang's shoulder. In an instant, the room became impossibly bright. Yang saw the Odin step into the narrow entryway after she and Gizmo soared past him. They took up secondary positions to shield the ducking operatives and soldiers from whatever flames would slip past Ryder's shield, and braced for the heat.

And the heat certainly came. Ryder suffered the worst of it, but the fire rolled like a purifying wave down the hall. It splashed across Yang's shield and licked at the flesh of those behind her. The heat was incredible. Whatever Vahlen and Tygan had stuffed into that bomb, it was _really_ potent. Yang had always had an affinity towards fire, and even she couldn't help but grit her teeth so as not to cry out.

Just as it seemed to become unbearable, the flames dissipated.

" _Holy shit, the Gigas just lit up like a Christmas tree._ "

" _Hope you kids are safe in there, because we were able to see that blast from_ outside."

"Some of us are looking a little crispy," Yang admitted. "Target the epicenter of the blast. Maybe that bomb cooked this thing enough for you to break through."

" _Target locked. Syncing firing solution so all four rounds strike the same location. Brace for impact._ "

The Jaegers fired once more. The first round struck, and Yang could _feel_ the crack in the Gigas's hide as it struggled to dissipate the kinetic round. The second round struck, and the sound from inside the Gigas changed noticeably. The third round tore through the monster's skin completely. Yang caught a glimpse past Ryder of the charred heart just as the fourth round crashed into it and scattered the monstrous organ into ashes.

"Holy shit…" Yang breathed. Rays of light pierced through the new window that the Jaegers ripped open, and an eerie silence fell over the group. Some of the soldiers were whimpering in pain from the fire (or their previous wounds), but the noise was pushed to the back of Yang's mind when she noticed something far more important.

She couldn't hear any Grimm.

 _They had won._

* * *

A/N: Alright, so now that the Menagerie arc has come to a close and I'm not leaving you on a cliffhanger, it's time to give you some bummer news: I'm taking a few months off. Despite the slow pace of releases (at least they feel slow to me), I've been "on" for basically a year since the last time I gave myself a break. I need to take a deep breath, recharge my batteries, and then assess where I'm at with the story and where I feel it needs to go from here.

I'll still be around to chat with people on the Discord (I've become awful at responding to PM's on this site, unfortunately), so feel free to stop by, say hello, and and hang out with us while you wait. I only ask that you don't ask me when I plan to start writing again.

Have a safe holiday season, and I'll be back sometime in the new year.


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